Domino 123
by LoganAlpha30
Summary: HUGE APOLOGIES FOR TAKING SO LONG. The rest of this story is now up, all of the way to the epilogue. Again sorry and as always reviews are appreciated. Thank You.
1. Chapter 1

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note: This story takes place a little while after the fight in the alley, it'll be different than some of my other stories as there won't be to many happy reunions, though the couples remain the same, but both Spike and Angel have a chip on their shoulder as to Buffy and Giles and the Scooby gangs effectively turning their backs on them, Angel and Spike don't take rejection to well and Buffy and the gang will find that out the hard way.**

**CHAPTER 1-RUDE AWAKENINGS**

One Month Ago…

The bile rose up in his throat and after a few seconds he could no longer hold it in. He forced himself up onto his forearms long enough to expunge the contents of his stomach, mostly so that he wouldn't drown in it. When that was over the pain set back in. Every nerve in his body seemed to be on fire, sending their signals of action to the brain a mile a minute. He convulsed violently for several seconds before everything became calm. The world spun around him in a sea of blurry images and a deafening cacophony of sound. The scars at various points on his body felt like they were being unzipped, all at the same time, and the original wounds suffered through again. His breath caught in his throat and for what seemed like an eternity he struggled for each and every breath, something that was only hindered by his cold sweats and the shock to his system of suddenly materializing on the beach in the middle of the night wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Painful images of his last few moments of life flashed through his mind, the archduke, the knife, Fred. Each flash of memory brought with it a wrenching jerk in his stomach, very nearly bringing forth another torrent of vomit. The muscles of his arms and legs seemed to daringly refuse to work and allow him anything more than to blindly flail around in the surf. The salt water stung his eyes and sent even more shivers through his system. He was just about to pass out into nothingness when she appeared, standing beside him in the surf, appearing like an angel out of thin air, beaming with hope.

"Come Wesley, you still have a lot of work to do, my time is short and there is a lot that I need to tell you," Fred said with a sad but yet encouraging smile on her face as she knelt down beside him in the surf and gently caressed his cheek. As her hand came into contact with his face all of the pain and misery instantly vanished.

"F…Fred," Wesley very weakly mumbled out with a look of utter disbelief on his face as he struggled to look upon his love for only a moment before darkness took him and he collapsed into the surf.

"He'll be okay Fred, you just have to make sure that he gets there in time, otherwise she could die, and if she dies…," Cordelia said with a very worried look on her face as she stepped calmly into the surf and also knelt down beside him.

"Then all is lost," Fred finished with a very nervous and even scared look on her face before there was a bright flash of light and the three disappeared into the dark night.

Two weeks ago…

The plane touched down at the airport just like any other had that day. To the woman sitting in a window seat in the middle of the plane the sun was shining to brightly through the small window, forcing her to slide the shade closed. Her stomach was still giving her fits and she had just woken up from a particularly exhaustive and intense dream. When her eyes had snapped open she had noticed several of the other passengers and even a couple of the flight attendants staring oddly at her. She had thought about shouting at them to mind their own business but remembered that she was here on a mission. Buffy had sent her here to Los Angeles to find out what had really happened to Angel and his team. A little more than a month had passed since the fall of the Wolfram and Hart tower. Not three days later the tower was back in place, looking pristine and serene right next to the other buildings, with no one being the wiser that it had fallen just days earlier. Buffy and Giles had made their instructions very clear, find out at all costs what had happened and report back to them using a number that she had scribbled on a scrap piece of paper that she had stuffed into her pocket just before boarding the plane in Rome.

Her hands were all clammy and her mouth tasted like a mix between bile and black licorice. The passenger in the seat next to her had scooted over as far away from her as they could and looked ready to bolt the second that she was allowed to. Deciding against making a sarcastic remark Faith simply bade her time and waited until she had collected her bags and stepped out of the terminal to let out the breath that she seemingly been holding in since leaving Europe. She was finally alone and out on her own again, far removed from the painful memories of opening her heart up for the first time in years and getting it stomped on when she had found the man that she thought loved her sleeping with another woman. That had only been a week ago and she had been eager to take any assignment that would take her far away from Rome. She put her sunglasses on and hailed the first taxi that she saw, giving the directions to the driver before flopping back in her seat and letting the breeze waft her hair around on the way to her first stop.

Present day…

"This is pitiful," Spike grumbled with an unhappy scowl on his face as he slid his duster off and laid it over the back of a chair.

"Not now Spike," Angel grumbled back with a painful expression on his face as he did his best to get in a good verbal shot on his granchilde without moving too much and aggravating one of his injuries.

"I'm just saying that this is not where I thought I'd end up when I signed on to your little army," Spike said back with a less than thrilled look on his face as he stared angrily up at the only source of light in the room, a bare bulb hanging loosely from the ceiling that was about half shot.

"Then you shouldn't have signed up, look Spike we didn't ask to be here but this is where we ended up, we're just going to have to deal with the hand that we've been dealt, simple as that," Nina said before Angel could open his mouth as she walked across the room holding two bags of blood.

"Easy for you to say, you can still travel around freely up there, Peaches and I would be killed on sight," Spike said back with an unhappy pout on his face as he took the bag of blood that Nina handed to him and slipped his game face on.

"You call hiding in the shadows and running from alley to alley free, sorry but the three of us are public enemy numbers one, two, and three, Wolfram and Hart went so far as to leak our likenesses to the authorities under the notion that we're murderers wanted for a string of killings," Nina shot back with an over anxious and tense scowl on her face as she walked around the edge of the couch and sat down next to Angel, doing her very best to keep from jostling him any more than was absolutely necessary.

"Not exactly a lie about me and Angel luv, though you're still an innocent, haven't killed anyone yet," Spike replied with a useless breath as he shook his head and then bit into the bag of blood, gaining strength and beginning the mending of some of his injuries with every drop.

"Still we can't stay here forever, the only reason that we're not out of here is because Angel can barely move with his injuries," Nina said back with a very serious and worried look on her face as she gently laid her hand on Angel's arm.

"Well boys and girls I don't think that the ole senior partners are going to wait until Peaches here is fit to fight again before they send their best after us," Spike said back with a slightly sing song tone of voice as he finished off the bag of blood and slipped back into his human visage.

"They think we're dead Spike, they're not going to send anyone after us, the cover story to the police is just a precautionary measure, just in case," Angel countered with a very tired tone to his voice before he went back to slowly draining the bag of blood dry. When he tried to make the holes that his fangs had made a bit bigger he spilled a bit onto Nina's hand and arm. He started to apologize but Nina simply shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"It's okay, you're hurt so I'll let it slide, besides the wolf in me tends to get a little antsy ever now and again and a little blood helps to calm it down, even though it almost makes me want to gag," Nina said with another shrug of her shoulders and a defensive expression on her face when Spike and Angel stared oddly at her after she brought the blood marred hand up to her mouth and began to lick it off.

"That is just wrong, I thought only vampires drank blood," Spike stated with a slightly queasy feeling in his stomach as he sat up in his chair and looked over at Nina.

"I don't drink blood, and like I said, I only take a little when the werewolf acts up…most of the time I just have a steak that's barely cooked, since the blood that I got for you two was from pigs it's pretty much the same thing right, but you should try to explain a hungry growl to a class full of art students sometime, they all probably think that I'm a few bricks shy of a load by now," Nina replied with an embarrassed look on her face as she finished licking up the rest of the blood and then reached for a towel.

"This has all be very informative really, but since I still feel like shit I'm going to have to suggest that you two try to keep from arguing for two seconds and let me get some sleep," Angel said with a subtle smile on his face as he slowly drifted away into dreamland, leaving Nina and Spike to try to keep to his wishes.

Things hadn't gone as she had planned. Not more than two days into her stay in LA things had gone from bad to worse. The nightmares that had plagued her for several days before accepting the assignment had not ceased and to make matters worse she was having no luck in finding anything out about the disappearance of Angel and the rest of his group. The woman at the front desk of the Wolfram and Hart branch in Los Angeles had said that she'd never heard of anyone named Angel or Wesley. It had taken Faith all of her willpower to keep from assaulting the woman right then and there and it was only as she was leaving the building that Faith passed by a trashcan and glanced down briefly, noticed a soaking wet copy of an old newspaper and brought it back to her hotel room with her. After the paper had dried she used tweezers that she had lifted from a nearby gas station and carefully peeled the pages apart. The article that had caught her eye had Angel's name in big letters with what looked like a picture of Wesley underneath. Though in truth she hadn't thought that it was Wesley at first as he looked very different from how she had remembered him. He looked nothing at all like the virgin watcher that had showed up in Sunnydale and tried to run her life. Gone was that innocence and optimism, replaced by self-loathing and pain.

She knew those feelings all to well and she had found that the only time that they abated briefly was when she was around someone else that was in her same predicament. The knowledge of the fact that she had forced him down a path on the darker side of life and had taken pleasure in it now made her have to bite her tongue to keep from vomiting. She could feel the tears threatening to come but forced them back as she squinted and tried her best to read the article. Her eyes widened considerably as she read on about how the Wolfram and Hart tower that she had just been in a few hours before had unexpectedly come crashing down in an instant and that the head of the Los Angeles branch, and all of his senior staff, of Wolfram and Hart had perished in the collapse. There lying in front of her was the answer that she had been sent to LA to find, though something was gnawing at her in the back of her mind that it wasn't as simple as how the newspaper made it seem. She knew that Angel wouldn't go down that easily and she believed that Wesley would have been smart enough to stay clear of a building collapse. She went to sleep that night with those thoughts, amongst the dark myriad of others, in her head. So it was no great shock when in the middle of the night the denizens of the hotel that she was staying in were awoken suddenly by the panicked screams of a young woman, though herself fully asleep. By the time that Faith regained consciousness and discovered where she was she found herself bound in a straight jacket chained to a chair and staring across an old table at a psychiatrist, with several small paper cups in front of him, each filled undoubtedly with one antidepressant or anti-psychotic or another, ready for use.

One Week Later…

The drugs kept her in a state of dreams. Most of the time she didn't know what was real and what was simply a figment of her very active imagination. Being a slayer and having slayer dreams certainly didn't help her out any and it was usually just when she was starting to get a handle on things they'd dope her up again and everything would be lost once more. All of her personal belongings had been sealed into Ziploc bags and placed into a bin marked with her identification number. Somewhere in that bin was the number that she was supposed to have called every day with her progress. Giles had thought about sending someone else, even going so far as to openly discuss the matter with the new watcher's council; most of whom were retired watchers combined with the gang from Sunnydale. But in the end it had been decided that Faith had simply forgotten to check in and that any day now she'd call and everything would be set right again. During the night Faith was restrained heavily in her cell, mostly due to the fact that on her second night on the ward she had broken one of the orderly's arms.

More than one of the other orderly's had felt her up while she was either to doped up to notice or to heavily restrained to do anything about it, though with her small ounce of sanity and clarity she had put their faces and names away into memory for retrieval later when she was freed. On her eighth night on the ward there was a terrible lightning storm and the old lights in the building stayed on but began to blink in and out and varying intervals. That night she had been led out of her cell and to one of the small rooms where sat an aged psychiatrist flanked by a gaggle of interns that would furiously scribble notes down on small pads of paper whenever the doctor would ask Faith anything and she would respond. The inquisition, as she saw it, lasted for almost two hours. It was almost midnight when she was finally led out of the small room and started back towards her cell.

No one noticed him walking calmly up to a side entrance and slip past the guards. The security cameras did not capture his image either. He walked calmly and quietly through the shadows of the long and dark hallways, punctuated only by a stray bulb that had decided to stay on for a little while. He wore a long coat, long enough to hide the bulge of the weapons underneath. Rather than outfit himself with an entire arsenal he had only decided to bring the necessities. Two pistols, a sawed off shotgun slid into a holster that was tied to his left leg, and an ancient knife that he knew would both peak her interest and curiosity and be useful in freeing her from the straightjacket and then in defending herself from the guards. In one of his back pockets he carried a small vial that he had been given that was supposed to instantly counteract the effects of whatever drugs they had pumped into her system.

As he climbed the stairs and opened up the door to her level he casually pulled out the two pistols and stepped calmly down the hallway, only once stopping to notice his grizzled and haggard reflection in a mirror that was situated up on one of the walls to help the guards look around the corner. His glasses long gone and the jagged scar across his neck back in its rightful place he looked like a psychopath, and had anyone known what he had been told in the days and weeks leading up to this night they would have thought him insane as well. Though tonight he had a mission to accomplish and nothing would stop him.

The first guard to notice him immediately asked him to return to the waiting room and that he was in a restricted area. Without the slightest hint of emotion in his face he aimed and pulled the trigger, blowing out the guards knee and splattering the nearby wall with blood in the process. With an almost callous indifference he knelt down and retrieved the ring of keys from the guards belt, ignoring the guards screams of pain until he could stand it no longer and smashed the butt of his gun into the guards temple, knocking him out cold. Finding the right key he unlocked the door and passed through the first checkpoint completely unnoticed. He ducked into a darkened room as one guard made his rounds, and then continued on down the hallway, checking his watch every few feet. He slid into the shadows behind one locked gate and waited. A few minutes ticked by before they led her around the corner, still bound in her straightjacket and shackled hands and feet. She looked to be resisting somewhat but her attempts were only halfhearted, as she seemed to be drugged as well.

"Is she really that dangerous that we have to pump her full of drugs every time we move her," One of the guards asked with an unsure frown on his face as they neared the gate. As they got closer something clicked in Faith's mind and her slayer senses went into overdrive, warning of extreme danger nearby. Seemingly snapping instantly out of her stupor she began to violently thrash about as best she could, forcing the guards to focus all of their attention on keeping her in line. One of the guards finally pulled out his nightstick and brought it down on the back of her head. Stars filled Faith's field of vision and she came close to passing out before she sensed another presence in the hallway. Almost immediately after that the guards seemed to figure out that they weren't alone as well.

"Is someone there, step into the light," The other guard started to say with a nervous tone to his voice as Faith began to thrash about again when several shots rang out through the hallway. The echo nearly broke her eardrums and for several seconds afterwards all that she could hear was a great ringing sound. She felt and saw the two guards that had been transporting her slump to the ground, riddled with bullet holes. Out of fear and shock she stumbled to her knees and began to shake as she raised her head, fully expecting to die in the next few seconds.

"Hello Faith," Wesley said softly with an almost glad to see her smirk on his face as he stepped into the light, his guns still smoking.

"Wes…what," Faith stammered out through trembling lips before he holstered his guns and unlocked the gate. He was beside her almost instantly, holding her up with one arm while fishing around for something in his jacket with the other. More than once Faith nearly lost consciousness before Wesley slid down the wall into a seated position and pulled her onto his lap. He turned her sideways and used the arm that was holding her up to push her chin up while he popped the top of the small vial that Fred and Cordelia had given him. He poured it down her throat in one quick and clean motion, using his free hand to hold her mouth shut so that she wouldn't try to vomit it up. Fred had told him that she might try to do that and that he must not allow that to happen. He dropped the small vial and held her as tightly as he could when her eyes rolled back in her head and she began to violently convulse.

He had been told to expect this as well though actually being there with her made it all much worse. Had he tears to shed he would have then. After a few moments she convulsed one last time and then went still. As he tried to calm his breathing down Wesley did his best to get her out of the straightjacket. He had just finished in pulling it off of her when she moaned softly and squinted her eyes even though they were still shut. Wesley pulled her close and then just as her eyes faintly opened he brushed the hair away from her face and off of her forehead. She stared at him like she thought him a ghost, almost as if she didn't recognize him. He tried to remain calm and let her sort out what had happened as he continued to hold her tightly and calm his breathing. With a feeble hand she reached up and gently brushed her fingers across his cheek, almost instantly yanking them back as if she was surprised that she had touched something solid.

"W…Wes," Faith mumbled out softly with a look of both disbelief and relief on her face before she couldn't help but allow a kind of awkward smile to creep onto her face.

"It's okay Faith, I'll explain everything later, but first I have to get you out of here, you're not safe here anymore, you're only safe with me," Wesley replied with a calm and controlled tone of voice and look on his face as he slowly helped her up into a seated position, though she kept her gaze locked onto him as if she were still deciding whether or not he was actually real and not a hallucination. "I'm not a bloody figment of your imagination Faith, I'm actually here, see these scars…they're from the ropes that you used to bind my wrists to the chair when you tortured me," Wesley added with an anxious expression on his face as he pulled back his sleeves and showed her the small rope burn scars on his wrists. With a very trembling hand she reached out and hesitantly touched the scars, getting an instant shock of memory of that night in her mind. The tears suddenly came very freely as he pulled her closer to him, before she soaked the front of his shirt with her tears. When she was done she leaned back and seemed to have fully regained her composure.

"If this is a rescue then we should get going, wouldn't want to keep Angel and the others waiting," Faith stated with a very calm and collected tone of voice and sly grin on her face as she brushed the dirt off of her hands and then stood up.

"They're all gone Faith, I'm all that's left," Wesley replied with a very somber and humiliated tone of voice as he kept staring straight ahead at the spatter of blood on the wall before he pulled himself back up to his feet and reached into his pocket for the keys that he had taken from the guard earlier.

"What…how," Faith exclaimed with an utter look of disbelief on her face as she stopped brushing the dirt off of herself to stare up at her old watcher.

"We took on the Senior Partners and lost, Cordelia fell first, then Fred, then it was my time, after that Gunn went next with the others following soon after the fight in the alley, Wolfram and Hart sent everything that they had after us," Wesley answered with a very guilty and haunted look in his eyes before he turned and started off down the hallway, leaving Faith to stare down at the bodies of the guards for a few seconds before she turned and took off after him. The guards' bodies would be found almost half an hour later but by the time that the call went out Faith and Wesley had already slipped away into the night.

END OF CHAPTER 1


	2. A Few Questions And Fewer Answers

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 2-A FEW QUESTIONS AND FEWER ANSWERS**

Immediately upon opening her eyes she knew that she was no longer detained. She found herself lying on a comfortable couch with a warm blanket wrapped tightly around her. The first scent that she caught was an overwhelming stench of alcohol. Normally she wouldn't have a problem with this but the fact that she hadn't actually drank any of the beer herself and that her stomach was still a little off made the scent not to inviting. Licking her lips she pushed herself up to get a good look at her surroundings. She was surprised and secretly a bit relieved to see Wesley passed out in a nearby chair, looking like he was in the middle of a nightmare. She still wasn't completely convinced that the events of the previous night had truly transpired as she had remembered them and so she slowly and carefully crept over to him and very carefully tapped him on the knee. When her hand didn't immediately pass through him but instead hit solid flesh and bone she let out a breath that she had been holding the entire way. She was about to shake him away when he repositioned himself and his shirt fell open. Her eyes started off on their own, drinking in the sights, before she managed to regain control.

When she did she was about to look away when she noticed two scars that she hadn't remembered giving him during her night of torturing him. The scars looked to have been big enough deals that she would have thought that he would have told her about them when he broke her out of prison, but he had remained silent about them and now Faith was left to wonder why. She recognized one of them instantly; she'd seen enough bullet scars during her time to figure out that Wesley had been shot some time ago. In the back of her mind a fear emerged in wondering how close he had come to death, robbing her of the chance to do something that she never thought that she'd ever do to him, apologize. The other scar however sent a cold shiver down her spine. She had a very similar one herself, right in the place that Buffy had stabbed her. Almost instinctively she touched the spot of her similar scar as if an attempt to calm herself down and quell the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Immediately she wondered who had stabbed him and why, and had he really been dead or had the newspaper been wrong. She started to inch closer to him before she noticed a well-hidden scar on his neck. Her heart very nearly dropped into her stomach at the sight of it. With a shaking hand she lightly traced the length of it with her finger before she felt her eyes water up. Moments later the after effects of all of the drugs that she had been on caught up with her and she rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and only barely managing to lift the lid before it all came out. She wretched for what felt like an eternity before her stomach finally quieted down. Even though she was in southern California the floor was cold enough for Faith to get the chills and for her teeth to come close to chattering.

"You finished," Wesley asked softly from the doorway with an almost dead look on his face as he stood there, making no motion to either fully enter or fully exit the room.

"I think so," Faith mumbled back with a slightly sickly feeling in her stomach before Wesley stepped forward and offered her a hand up. She cast a quick look into his eyes before reaching out and accepting his hand.

"Good, because we have a lot of work to do and I can't find them without your help," Wesley replied with a genuinely relieved half smile on his face as he directed her out of the bathroom and back into the main room of Wesley's apartment.

"What work…find who," Faith mumbled out softly with a confused look on her face as she allowed Wesley to sit her down on the couch before he walked over to his wet bar.

"Angel, Spike, and Nina, they survived the fight in the alley and are now hiding out from Wolfram and Hart and the Senior Partners, it won't be easy but we have to find them before anyone else does, otherwise nothing that we do will matter, want a drink," Wesley replied with a calm expression on his face as he opened up the doors and took out a flask of brandy.

"Spike…thought he was dead, never heard of the girl," Faith said back with a contemplative look on her face as she turned in her seat and looked back at Wesley.

"He was, for a few weeks at least, but then he showed up in Angel's office, his essence came out of the amulet that Angel gave to Buffy, Spike was for lack of a better word a ghost for several weeks before he mysteriously was reconstituted into flesh and bone, after that he came on board and worked with us until the night that we tried to defy the Senior Partners, they didn't take it very well I'm afraid…Nina is Angel's girlfriend, though I would advise you to be cautious, she's a werewolf, Angel couldn't save her in time," Wesley answered with a matter of fact look on his face and a tone of voice that was one that one would usually use to denote boredom.

"Can't anyone stay dead anymore, first B dies and comes back and now Spike…gotta get on their health plan," Faith mumbled back with a deep in thought frown on her face as she shook her head and turned back around to face the television.

"Trust me when I say that you'd rather stay alive and not go through the process, from the way that Spike so eloquently described it there was an insane amount of pain involved, and coming back can be quite disorienting, but that's a talk for another time, how do you feel," Wesley said with a crooked grin on his face as he filled two glasses and then walked back over towards the couch.

"Five by five…more or less," Faith replied with a weak smile of confidence on her face before her stomach made a noise and she shifted in her seat a bit to try and cover up the noise.

"Well perhaps this will help to settle your stomach a little," Wesley said with a slight smirk on his face as he handed Faith one of the glasses.

"Thanks, look thanks for springing me and all…again, but the newspaper said that you and the others died, you telling me that they got it wrong or are you some kind of," Faith started to say with a confused and unsure look on her face before Wesley looked up from his glass and stopped her.

"The newspaper wasn't wrong Faith, I did die, though being dead didn't last as long as I had expected," Wesley replied with a calm and quiet tone to his voice as he looked straight at Faith while speaking before he took a big sip of his drink. Faith went rigid at his words, stopping the glass halfway in between her lap and her mouth as she snapped her head around to look straight at him, eyes wide. "My mission was to kill a very powerful warlock on that night, I almost succeeded, but in the end he got the better of me and stabbed me in almost the same place that Buffy stabbed you back in Sunnydale, needless to say I didn't last very long after that," Wesley explained with a serious and somewhat sad look on his face as he recounted his own death, trying not to leave anything out and pausing every so often to make sure that Faith got it all.

"What's it like…dying, I've come close but," Faith asked with a genuinely scared look in her eyes as she looked over at Wesley.

"Surprisingly it's not that bad, the worst part of it was that I failed to accomplish my mission, I didn't kill Vail, thankfully though Illyria took care of that problem," Wesley replied softly as he couldn't look at Faith as he felt his emotions welling up within him and his eyes threatened to tear up.

"Who's Illyria," Faith asked with a confused look on her face, as she seemed to have regained some of her fire and energy.

"That is a long story, one that is better left for another," Wesley started to reply with a hesitant and distant look on his face before Faith surprised even herself by leaning forward and laying one of her small hands on the back of one of his larges ones, her eyes silently begging him to go on and tell the story. He tried to stand firm for several moments but in the end she won out.

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"Thought you weren't well enough to be up and around, been playing possum have you, nurse Nina is not going to be happy with you, no…not at all," Spike quipped with a sly grin on his face as he stayed staring out at the night sky while sitting on the edge of the rooftop.

"I might look like shit but that doesn't mean that I have to stay glued to the couch," Angel said back with a sarcastic grin on his face as he slowly and carefully walked the rest of the way and leaned forward onto the built up edge of the building.

"True, you never were one to do what you were told, always having to go off on your own," Spike joked back with an amused smirk on his face as he half turned his head back towards Angel.

"Look who's talking, you've never done a single thing that I ever told you to do, guess we're more alike than…nah," Angel started to verbally jab back with a sly grin on his face before Spike furrowed his brows like he always did when someone said something that both surprised him and made him think that they had gone starkers all at the exact same time, and the two spoke the last word in perfect harmony.

"You know what I think it is, honestly, you're a bad influence on me," Spike shot back with his best scholarly and matter of fact look on his face as he turned back around to stare out at the night sky before the strong scent of liquor came to his attention.

"You have no idea," Another voice said with a thickly sarcastic tone to it as Spike and Angel whirled around to see Wesley and Faith standing several feet away, both looking a little worse for wear but all in all not to bad.

"Wes," Angel whispered out under his breath with a total look of disbelief on his face as Wesley and Faith began to walk towards him. Faith felt a little left out when Angel's eyes never left Wesley but in that moment she guessed that Angel didn't know that he was back either.

"You're looking…like a bloody travesty," Wesley said with a slightly smug grin on his face before Angel did something that certainly surprised Faith. Looking as if he were about to tear up Angel pushed aside the pain that his various injuries were causing him and pulled Wesley into an almost to tight bear hug, with Wesley cautiously returning the gesture.

"Quite the Kodak moment isn't it," Spike joked with an impish grin on his face as he slid off of the edge of the building and walked past Wesley and Angel until he stood beside Faith, doing his best to hide how happy he was to see Wesley.

"Thought you were dead, B," Faith started to say with a surprised and confused look on her face as she turned away from Wesley and Angel and to Spike before he replied.

"The in flight movie sucked so I had them push my flight to hell back a little while, and Buffy's got her own worries to contend with without me buggering things up, besides she's got her new beau to keep her company, I'd just be getting in the way," Spike interjected with an unhappy and nervous look on his face as he lowered his head a bit and then awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

"If you believe that then," Faith started to say with a very sarcastic, and even slightly angry, expression on her face before Wesley and Angel ended the hug and turned to face them.

"Spike, good to see that you made it through," Wesley said with a relieved look on his face as he slowly extended his hand towards Spike.

"How is this possible," Angel asked with an overwhelmed and confused expression on his face as he turned away from Wesley and towards Faith before he did the unexpected and pulled her into a tight bear hug, one that she wasn't ready for but didn't fight.

"Fred and Cordelia, they brought me back," Wesley answered with an eerily calm tone to his voice as he slid his hands into his pockets and tried to not get emotional.

"They were here, where are they," Angel asked with a stunned look on his face as he let go of Faith and turned back around to face Wesley.

"I'm afraid that they're gone Angel, they brought me back and gave me a task to complete, then they vanished, I don't know when or if they'll ever come back," Wesley replied with a somber frown on his face as he turned and walked over to the edge of the building, sadly staring out into the night sky as the wind picked up a bit.

"Still doesn't explain how you knew where I was and why you rescued me," Faith wondered with a confused and uneasy look on her face as she felt a pang of sympathy for her old watcher.

"They told me where you were and that I needed to free you, they didn't tell me everything but whatever is going to happen you're going to play a big part in it Faith, all I'm supposed to do is keep you alive, as far as I know anyway," Wesley said back with an uncertain look on his face as he turned and looked back at Faith, the two silently sharing a concerned look.

"This is all well and dandy folks but I'm still not seeing the big picture here, you free her…yay for our side, but what now," Spike interjected with a sobering expression on his face as he stepped in between Faith and Wesley and looked at them each in turn.

"I'm not sure, the only clue that Fred gave me was that we would find our enemy in Europe somewhere, whoever or whatever it is it is supposed to present itself to us at the right time, until then I believe that all we can do is go there and wait," Wesley said with an unsure frown on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and then turned back to look out over the city.

"Buffy's in Europe, you don't think," Angel said softly with a confused tone to his voice before he turned and looked over at Spike.

"It's possible, she did turn her back on you just when you needed her the most, could have been a sign of things to come," Spike reluctantly said with a nervous and unhappy look on his face as he took in and then let out a useless breath.

"She turned her back on all of us Spike, not just me," Angel said with a sad and bitter look on his face as he turned away from the small group and slowly walked back to the edge of the building to stand beside Wesley.

"She didn't know Angel, she couldn't have…if she had known what was really going on B would have been right there at your side, fighting the good fight," Faith interjected with a nervous and unsure look on her face as she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"But that's just it Faith, she didn't trust me, after everything that we've been through she didn't trust me…she let Giles and her own fears about us taking over Wolfram and Hart sway her judgment to the point where she didn't even have the decency to send someone to check out what was really going on, she's given up on us…so why shouldn't we do the same to her, with this new threat that Wesley's describing I'll be damned if I go running to her with my tail between my legs asking for help, she had her chance, she had it and she wasted it, we're on our own here folks, better get used to it," Angel shot back with a very firm but calm tone to his voice as he clenched his fists so tightly that his already white skin became almost transparent. After he stopped talking an eerie silence filled the rooftop as each of them took it all in.

"I'm with you Angel, Lord knows I've got nothin else better to do, and who knows maybe we'll get a chance to pay ole Rupert a little visit," Spike said with a curious smile on his face as he nodded his head while looking over at Angel.

"Count me in to, I was brought back for a reason and I'm going to see it through, you're the leader Angel, I will follow you," Wesley added with a sincere and almost honored look on his face as he pulled his hands back out of his pockets and turned to Angel.

"Thanks, Nina's a given…so that just leaves you Faith, whose side are you on in this," Angel replied with a slightly relieved look on his face before he, Spike, and Wesley turned to face Faith, with almost accusing looks on their faces.

"You're joking right, what do you mean whose side am I on, I'm with you," Faith said back with a defiant and somewhat angry scowl on her face as she stepped forward and looked straight at Angel.

"Are you sure, can you honestly swear to me that you're not just going to tell Buffy and Giles about all of this once we get back to Europe, that you'd help us however and whenever you could, even if it meant betraying Buffy and the others," Angel asked with a very serious and questioning look on his face as he took a step forward ahead of Spike and Wesley.

"Buffy didn't want me in Sunnydale to help fight the First, I fell into her lap after Wesley got me out of prison, he cared enough to get me to stop you when no one else did, you helped me turn the corner and salvage what's left of my life, and now Wes has rescued me again I'm not going to betray him…or you, by telling B anything, whatever you need me to do I'll do it, just say the word," Faith replied with a very firm and clear tone to her voice though as she was speaking the parts about Wesley Spike and Angel glanced briefly at each other as they sensed an underlying feeling in her words that surprised them.

"Okay then, we leave for Europe as soon as possible, and heaven help anyone that gets in our way," Angel said with a very determined look on his face before he adjusted his coat and walked down off of the roof in search of Nina.

END OF CHAPTER 2


	3. Close Quarters Breed Surprises

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 3-CRAMPED QUARTERS BREED SURPRISES**

The trip across the country had gone better than Angel could have hoped for. Wesley had found a big enough moving van that could hold them all and their supplies without looking suspicious. The company that he had rented the vehicle from had told him that he wasn't allowed to take the van out of the state, but by the time that they figured out that he had the van had already been ditched in the outskirts of Chicago. From there they had solved a small vampire problem for the owner of a junkyard and had bartered that service for the use of an old school bus that had definitely seen better days but would serve the purpose that they needed it for. After loading everything up and covering up all of the windows they had set off in haste for New York, hoping to stow away on a ship bound for any port in Europe.

"Couldn't you have picked a better ship," Spike asked with an impatient and unhappy scowl on his face as he wrinkled up his nose at the smell as he leaned back against several crates of shrimp.

"I did the best that I could Spike, this was the only ship that was going to Europe this week, we're lucky that we're even here so just sit back and relax and try not to annoy everyone to badly," Angel shot back with a frustrated and tired tone to his voice before he turned and stormed off down the hallway towards the small room that he had fixed up for himself and Nina. They had stowed away on a ship that had once must have been something of a tour boat as there were many staterooms that were still usable. The old staterooms high up towards the deck of the ship were being remodeled into more rooms more suitable to the shipping of goods trade then taking people out sightseeing.

"This ought to be a fun trip eh children, now don't do anything that I wouldn't do," Spike quipped with a sly grin on his face that hid the frustration of how they were traveling before he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and headed off down the corridor the opposite way that Angel had gone.

"God it's hot down here," Faith grumbled with an awkward and nervous frown on her face as she pulled her sweat drenched shirt away from her body and began to use it to fan herself in the hopes of cooling off just a little bit, all after a few moments of uneasy silence standing there with Wesley.

"It's because since these staterooms are about to be destroyed they just disconnected the air conditioners and vents, so the heat just gets trapped down here until it gets a chance to escape," Wesley explained with a tired yawn as he felt several beads of sweat rolling down the small of his back.

"Wonderful, I just love trying to sleep in a damn sauna," Faith muttered with an angry and unhappy scowl on her face as Wesley took off his shirt, leaving him only his beater covering his upper body.

"This should be exciting eh Faith," Wesley asked with darkly sarcastic tone to his voice and grin on his face before Faith just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Leaving Wesley standing at the junction Faith walked back to the stateroom that she had chosen for herself and shut the door behind her before turning on the light. Feeling slimy and filthy she pulled off her close until she was only wearing the two sizes to small underwear that she had grabbed when she and Wesley had stopped by a Wal-Mart on the way to where Angel, Nina, and Spike were staying. Seeing as how she had just escaped from a mental institution she had kept her head down when walking into the store and through the parking lot, not giving any of the cameras a chance to catch a glimpse of her face. She had hurried through the store, grabbing clothes that looked close enough and then paid for them, using a wad of cash that Wesley had stuffed into her hand before she slid off of his motorcycle and hurried back outside, changing into her new clothes around the corner of the building where it was the darkest. She had let out a couple of curses when she had found out about the shortcomings of the lingerie that she had picked out but knew that she couldn't chance going in again and buying more so she just didn't let it show on her face when she had hopped onto the back of Wesley's motorcycle and looped her arms around Wesley's waist. She laid her drenched shirt and jeans on the small desk in the room and hung her socks from a small railing that ran around the top of the room. Her shoes were flung into a corner and when she got to the bed she started to slide under the covers but changed her mind and laid down on her back on top of them and tried to calm herself, hoping that sleep would come quickly.

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The dream came slowly at first, starting out as any other dream, but soon turned into a full-blown nightmare. It always started out the same, with Faith walked through a seemingly deserted neighborhood at night. Everything seemed normal, complete with the sense that she knew exactly where she was going and it was a good place, before she heard a ripping sound and looked up. A large rip would always appear in the sky with a shower of fireballs spewing out of the tear. She would run for cover, barely avoiding the rain of fire, before she would dive over the hood of a car and take shelter behind it. For a second she would think that she was safe. But then her gaze would fall on the form of a horribly scarred little girl. The sight itself was enough to turn her stomach despite her having seen dead people before but there was something different about this girl, she seemed almost familiar somehow. The little girl had died with her eyes staring off into space and her hand outstretched as if reaching for something or begging for help. No matter how hard she tried Faith had never been able to tear her gaze away from the little girls face, even as tears would well up in her eyes and then wet her cheeks. And just when she didn't think that she could take it anymore the little dead girl would utter one solitary word before blood would gurgle out of her mouth and her eyes would close, mommy.

"No," Faith screamed out loudly as she instantly snapped out of her slumber and up to a seated position, wildly looking all over the small room for any trace of the girl or anything else from her dream. But like every other time she would see nothing and curse herself for getting all worked up over a stupid dream. "Fucking dream…why does it always," Faith grumbled with an almost seething tone of anger in her voice as she flopped back down onto the bed, staring sadly up at the ceiling. But this time was different. As she started to regain her composure and her eyelids grew heavy she heard a voice, Wesley's voice. It sounded like it was coming from the stateroom right next to hers. She couldn't tell what he was saying but she knew one thing for certain, his slumber was about as peaceful as hers had been during the nightmare. Pulling herself up out of her bed she started to reach for her jeans when there was a loud crash in his room. "Wesley," Faith exclaimed with a confused and worried tone to her voice as she passed over her jeans and jumped out into the hallway before yanking Wesley's door open.

She found him fast asleep, though it was clear that he had been tossing and turning for a good portion of the night as the room was a complete mess. She checked both ways down the hallway for Spike or Angel before she stepped into his room and shut the door behind her. She hesitantly approached his best as he continued to live through his nightmare, mumbling incoherent words in his sleep at odd intervals. As she got closer to him she tried not to let her gaze fall on any of the scars that she had caused. But when she got to his side what caught her attention the most was the old slash across his throat. Kneeling down, and wondering how he got it, Faith slowly reached up and traced her finger about a half and inch above the scar, but never actually touching him. She could tell from the scar that the wound had been a bad one. She swallowed hard as she realized just how close he had come to dying from the wound that had caused the scar that she was now focused on.

Keeping her body still she ran the hand at Wesley's neck glide down the contours of his collarbone, then his chest, and finally down to the next scar that had caught her attention, though once again she kept herself from actually touching him. She had seen the scar earlier at Wesley's apartment and now that she got a good look at it she knew for sure that he had been stabbed as well. She wondered if he had been in much pain or if his death had been quick. As she continued to stare at his stomach she brought her other hand up and gently brushed her thumb over the scar that she knew to have been caused by a bullet. When he didn't respond to her touch she brushed her thumb over the scar again, but this time leaving the finger on the scar longer than before. Feeling a bit more daring Faith slid that thumb across his stomach until she got to the scar of where he had been stabbed. She had no sooner touched the scar than Wesley's right hand shot out and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing hard enough to start to choke the life out of her.

"Hcck…Wes…Wesley, what, let go," Faith gasped and choked out with a stunned and scared look on her face as she tried desperately to wrench his hand from her throat, though for some mysterious reason her slayer strength was of little use to her in this endeavor. For what seemed like an eternity Faith struggled against Wesley's vice like grip on her throat. Just as she felt herself starting to lose consciousness his eye flew open and he realized what was happening.

"Faith what are you," Wesley started to ask with a very confused look on his face before he noticed that he was choking Faith and frantically let go of her and pulled his hand back, allowing her to collapse to the floor and try to get her breath back.

"What the hell did you do that for," Faith demanded through the gasps and coughs as she glared up at Wesley through the hair that had fallen down in front of her face.

"I don't know, I was having a nightmare about being attacked by demons and I fought back," Wesley answered with a look of confusion and disbelief on his face as he sat up and pulled the blankets up to cover himself.

"Where'd you get a grip like that, you were to strong," Faith gasped out her question quickly as she began to get her breath back and calm down a little.

"Beats me, but I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you, are you," Wesley stammered out with a worried and embarrassed look on his face before he turned to look down at Faith, for the first time noticing that she was in her underwear.

"I'm fine, I just heard you shouting in your sleep and came to see if you were alright, guess I should have been a bit more careful," Faith replied with a shaky tone of voice, one that was almost as if she was trying to make light of the situation as well as acknowledge the awkwardness of the situation.

"You were so worried about me that you forgot to get dressed," Wesley asked with a pointed expression on his face as Faith stood back up and after at first acting completely at ease standing in front of Wesley in only her underwear she glared back at him and then left the room.

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"Is that England," Nina asked with an excited smile on her face, reminding Angel of several of the children upon first sighting the United States from their boat decades earlier.

"The mother country, it's been awhile," Spike replied with an almost nostalgic look of happiness in his eyes as he then went quiet and stayed that way for several moments.

"How long has it been for you," Faith asked Wesley with a curious look on her face as she and the rest of the small group stood by the railing one of the ships middle decks, with Spike and Angel checking every few moments to make sure that no one was coming their way.

"Oh so you're talking to me again," Wesley replied with an almost sarcastically amused smirk on his face as he turned and looked down at the impatiently scowling slayer. Ever since the episode in his room Faith had not spoken a single word to Wesley until they caught sight of land.

"Cute," Faith grumbled back sharply with an odd look on her face, one that was firmly situated somewhere between anger and regret, before she turned around, crossed her arms across her chest, and then stared up intently at Wesley, waiting for him to answer.

"Going on six years, the last time that I was here was right before I came to Sunnydale to become Buffy's watcher, yours to of course but…it's been awhile," Wesley answered with a hesitant hitch in his voice as he stared out almost sadly at the approaching English coast.

"You don't seem thrilled to be back," Faith observed with a slight hint of concern in her voice as the impatient look on her face softened a bit.

"You'd think that I would be wouldn't you," Wesley replied softly with a deep in though look of sadness and apprehension on his face before he pulled his coat tightly around him and was suddenly overcome with a fit of violent coughing.

"Wesley," Angel exclaimed with a surprised and worried look on his face as he rushed to Wesley's side and caught him just as Wesley was about to crumple to the ground.

"I…I'm alright, just a bit of a cold," Wesley choked out with a very tired and pained look on his face as he tried to put everyone at ease.

"Some cold," Spike said with a tone to his voice that hinted that he knew that it was something much more than a simple cold but for the moment he was willing to let Wesley play whatever game it was that he was playing.

"You should get some sleep, it'll be a few more hours before we can sneak off anyway," Angel said with a concerned look on his face as he began to help Wesley back towards the door.

"I'll do," Faith started to say with a worried look on her face before Angel waved her off as he opened the door.

"It's okay I got him, you stay out here with Nina and Spike, I'll get Wesley to his room and then rejoin you," Angel said with a somewhat hurried tone to his voice as he helped Wesley climb through the doorway and then shut it behind him, leaving Faith to stand there looking confused and concerned.

"Thank you Angel," Wesley said softly with a painful wince as the two slowly made their way down the hallway.

"You can thank me later, now tell me what's really going on, you start coughing out of the blue hard enough to get some blood to come up and a simple cold won't cut it," Angel replied with an unconvinced and frustrated look on his face as he pulled Wesley up to his full height and leaned him against the wall.

"I don't know, the cough started shortly after Fred and Cordelia brought me back, it comes and goes and I have no way of knowing when it's about to hit, I was lucky enough not to do it when I broke Faith out but the sea air must have triggered it, don't worry Angel, I'll be fine once I'm off this bloody boat," Wesley answered with a fake smile of sincerity on his face before he coughed a couple more times and then wiped the blood on his jeans.

"Are you sure," Angel asked with a very serious look on his face as he looked straight across the hallway at Wesley.

"Yes, I'm sure, I just need some rest," Wesley replied with a tired and weary tone to his voice before Angel accepted that with a shrug of his shoulders and then helped him to his room.

"You think he's really okay," Nina asked with a genuinely worried look on her face as she started off looking at the door that Angel and Wesley had disappeared through before she turned and looked at Spike.

"Are you one of those people that wants the truth no matter how bad it is or are you one that likes to live in," Spike started to reply with a grim scowl on his face as he kicked a small dead fish off of the side of the ship before Faith cut in.

"Of course he's not okay, did he look okay to you," Faith snapped with an upset and frustrated scowl on her face as she looked ready to pound Nina's face in before Spike stepped in between the two.

"Okay ladies, that's enough, let's just take a step back and relax, fighting each other isn't going to do any of us any good, least of all Wesley," Spike stated with a very clear and firm tone to his voice as Nina and Faith enlarged the space between them.

"When did you become the voice of reason," Nina asked with an almost amused look of seriousness on her face as she brushed a bit of hair back behind her left ear.

"About the time that all of this stopped making any sense," Spike joked back with a subtle grin on his face before Faith and Nina started glaring at each other again.

"Should we tell him," Cordelia asked with a worried look on her face as she quietly watched the now softly snoring Wesley.

"Not yet, he still has a long way to go," Fred replied with a sad frown on her face as a tear slid down her cheek.

"But wouldn't telling him make it easier for him," Cordelia added with a thoughtful look of concern on her face as she briefly turned away from Wesley to face Fred.

"Normally yes, but not this time, if he knows the truth he might not complete his mission," Fred said back with a somber expression on her face before she leaned down and softly placed a kiss on Wesley's forehead.

"So to complete his mission he can't know that he's dying and the only one that can save him can't know either…what genius thought this brilliant plan up," Cordelia grumbled with an unhappy frown on her face before she and Fred disappeared mere seconds before Angel stepped back into the room, thinking that he had heard voices, only to find Wesley softly snoring away.

END OF CHAPTER 3


	4. You Had To Be There

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for reading this story, so far it's been fun writing it, as for pairings other than my main ones I'm all ears, Illyria will show up and have a plan of her own as well. Suggestions about when and how to get any pairing together, or someone that I should kill off, are greatly appreciated. As always reviews are appreciated and thanks again for reading this story. Reviews make me want to keep writing.**

**CHAPTER 4-YOU HAD TO BE THERE**

Spike sighed softly as he stepped off of the boat. The sun had gone down hours earlier and then Angel had let Wesley sleep until he was good and ready to order the group off of the boat. Faith had leaned back up against the wall just outside of Wesley's room and stayed there, never daring to actually peek in; until Angel had given the order that they were going to leave the ship. Unloading the supplies had taken longer than any of them had anticipated and so they were forced to use a condemned building as their hotel for the night. They had made sure that no one had seen them enter the building and only Angel and Spike were allowed to leave, though neither Nina nor Faith were in any real hurry to leave. Nina was to busy taking in all of the new sights and sounds while Faith, though she tried to hide it, kept an eye on Wesley most of the day until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and slipped into a peaceful sleep. When she awoke she found herself covered with a dirty blanket that she hadn't seen before falling asleep, deciding that one of the others must have covered her with it after she had fallen asleep. She was just about to ask Nina about it when Cordelia materialized out of thin air right in the middle of the room.

"Cordy," Angel gasped with a look of total disbelief on his face as he fought to keep tears out of his eyes.

"Yeah…it's me," Cordelia said with a very sympathetic look on her face, as she looked straight at Angel before turning away sharply to look towards Spike, the one person in the room that she knew that she could look at without tearing up at the sight of him.

"I'm sorry Angel but we don't have time for a happy reunion, the danger is only beginning for you and for the world," Fred said with a sad expression on her face as she materialized next to Cordelia, though she kept her gaze away from Wesley as best she could.

"Alright then, so what's got you two bird's all a giggle so much that you had to come back from the great beyond to give us a ring," Spike asked with a tired but interested look on his face as he pushed over an old couch and plopped down onto the least dirty cushion as Faith pushed the dirty blanket off of herself and stood up.

"If you'd shut up then maybe we could tell you," Cordelia lightly snapped back at Spike with an unhappy scowl on her face as she glared at Spike and he faked a hurt look.

"The battle with the Senior Partners was only the beginning," Fred started to say with a worried look on her face as she glanced down at the ground.

"Of course it was," Angel mumbled out with a very sarcastic tone to his voice as he scowled and crossed his arms before leaning up against a bare support column.

"We kicked a lot of demon derriere's back in LA, but that was easy, we knew who we were fighting and what they wanted, this time is different, we know that the threat is somewhere here in Europe and it's centered around one person, but other than that," Fred replied with a bit of a frustrated frown on her face as she shook her head at Angel's words and looked to Spike.

"Sounds easy enough," Faith said with a well-hidden look of worry on her face as she meagerly shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

"Is there anything to help us go on, a name, a face, some tattoo or symbol that when we see it we'll know that we're on the right track," Wesley asked with an interested and impatient look on his face as he walked up towards Fred and Cordelia.

"We don't know the person's name, though that could be because whoever they are they're not using their real name, as for a tattoo," Fred started to say with a look that seemed to say that she truly wished that she knew more and was angry that she didn't before Cordelia cut in.

"All I got in my vision, yeah I know they almost kill me while I was alive and now that I'm dead you'd think that I'd get a little bit of relief but oh no, the Powers That Be thought that it'd be fun to," Cordelia started to interject with a serious look on her face before her penchant for rambling caught up with her.

"Uh luv, the vision," Spike wondered with a confused look on his face as he sat up in his seat after casting a questioning glance in Angel's general direction.

"Huh, oh right the vision, I didn't see much, it was all so chaotic, the only thing that I can remember is an image…it might be a tattoo, of a small circle with what looked like several odd shaped boxes inside of it," Cordelia replied with a slightly dopey smile on her face before her countenance became much more serious at the end.

"That symbol could mean anything, looks like we're back to looking for a needle in a haystack guys," Faith said with an unhappy frown on her face as she shook her head and briefly turned away from Fred and Cordelia.

"Not entirely Faith, whoever is the big threat that we've sensed will make their presence known soon, however that happens it'll probably be where there's a large amount of people, probably some that would be needed for a sacrifice," Fred said back with a concerned look on her face as she stepped forward in front or Cordelia and towards Faith.

"Though would those people be willing participants in the sacrifice, if they are then this gathering would be almost impossible to locate in time to do anything about it," Wesley said with a deep in thought frown on his face as he let out an uneasy breath and then looked to Angel.

"Isn't there some other way that you can help us find this gathering," Angel asked with a pleading look in his eyes as he looked straight at Cordelia.

"Well…we weren't supposed to give you this until later but," Cordelia started to say with an anxious expression on her face before she pulled a clear stone from her pocket and then tossed it to Spike, who caught it with ease and then held it up to the light as he peered through it.

"What's this," Spike asked with an unconvinced frown on his face as he looked to Cordelia as he stood up and then handed the stone to Angel.

"It's kind of like a compass, it'll glow blue when friends are nearby and red for enemies, when it turns black you'll know that you've found the right spot, it's clear now because it takes a living soul to work it, Cordy and I and you and Spike don't count," Fred answered with a slightly cheesy smile on her face as she seemed very happy to explain how the stone worked.

"So that leaves Nina, Faith, or myself to work the stone," Wesley said with a concerned look on his face as he walked over to Angel and then picked the stone up from out of his palm with it instantly turning blue.

"Looks like it works," Spike observed with a calm look on his face as he seemed satisfied that the stone would work and went back to sit down on the old couch.

"Does this thing ever foul up, give a false reading," Faith asked with a slightly bored expression on her face as she walked over and started to pick up the stone from Wesley's palm but the instant that she touched it the stone started to give off a bright light and feel warm to the touch. Faith instantly snatched her hand back and jumped back a good foot as she whirled around to see if Fred or Cordelia would enlighten her on what had just happened.

"Never, it never makes a mistake, as to that bright light, well I guess that you'll have to figure that out for yourself, we can't give you all the answers now can we," Cordelia answered with an almost amused smirk on her face as she slid her hands back into her pockets and tried not to laugh.

"Oh yeah, Gunn says to watch your backs and stick together," Fred added with a calm smile on her face as she turned away from looking at Faith to look at Angel.

"Gunn," Angel asked with a confused look on his face as he tore his gaze away from Wesley and the stone.

"He's with us now but couldn't come because he's looking for his sister's soul," Fred replied with a sad frown on her face as she wished that Gunn had been able to come with them.

"Oh and Nina, hurt my boy here and I'll haunt your ass for all eternity," Cordelia said with a very stern and serious look on her face and tone to her voice as her gaze bore a hole straight through Nina, who could only swallow hard and nod her head in reply.

"Now I'm afraid that we have to go, we have other stops to make today and they're important to," Fred said with a sad look on her face as she looked around the room at everyone there before she and Cordelia started to dissolve, starting with their feet and working their way up to their heads.

"I'm sorry," Angel blurted out with a hurried and guilty tone to his voice as he hurried forward and lifted a hand up as if to physically keep them from leaving.

"I know Angel, you all tried your best to save me and I will be forever grateful to you for that, but don't carry my death around on your conscience, any of you, I'm in a better place and I…we're happy, so live your lives and don't despair, the five of you still have a lot of work to do," Fred said back with a sad smile on her face as tears trickled down her cheeks before she and Cordelia finally fully dissolved, with Cordelia's last act being to wink and blow a kiss towards Angel.

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"Any idea what the little light show earlier meant," Spike asked with a calm and almost bored tone to his voice as he walked over towards the window on the second floor and sat down on the opposite end of the bench than the one that Angel was sitting on.

"They would have said something if it was something important right," Angel asked with a confused and slightly nervous look on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and turned to Spike.

"Got me, you're supposed to be the brains of this outfit remember," Spike shot back with at first a completely serious look on his face before he couldn't help but smirk a bit at the angry look on Angel's face.

"Why do you always have to do that, turn everything that I say around into a joke, do you think I'm funny, that I'm here to amuse you," Angel grumbled with an unhappy and combative scowl on his face as he fully turned to stare straight at Spike, who chose his words carefully before opening his mouth.

"Not particularly no, it's just that you're usually right about things, I hate people like that, because that's not me, that's not who I am, I'm the bloke that's lucky if he can get more than a sniff before someone…or something tries to lop my head off, or certain other vital parts of my anatomy, I've never been the thinker of the group, I just like to get a word in edgewise so everyone doesn't think that I'm completely useless," Spike finally said back with a soft and heartfelt tone to his voice as he kept himself from looking Angel in the eye.

"Why Spike, I believe that's the nicest thing that you've ever said to me, now was that really that hard," Angel declared with an overly comforting tone of voice that one only takes when they're trying not to sound like they're making fun of someone but they are.

"Bloody soul, we should write a book about this, once you get your soul you turn into the grandest smeg-head of all time," Spike grumbled back sharply with an unhappy and embarrassed scowl on his face as he kicked a board away with his boot.

"Don't worry William, I won't tell the other's that you're just a big softy inside, that how you got Buffy, played the old wounded," Angel started to say with a slight smile on his face before Spike cut him off.

"Sod off Peaches, I didn't play wounded anything, I was there when she needed me, the reason didn't matter, whether it was my strength to hack and slash with some big bad or a willing ear, she used to go on and on about everything, nearly caught myself napping a few times there, luckily she didn't notice, in the end I didn't let her build up any of her walls to protect herself, turned the light of truth on her, made her see the truth about herself and the others even if she wasn't ready to see it, course my helping to protect the little Bit probably didn't hurt my case either," Spike answered slowly with at first a bristling tone to his voice before he calmed down and spoke calmly and plainly, though with a great amount of emotion in his voice.

"Do you love her Spike, I mean really love her," Angel asked directly with a very serious look on his face and tone to his voice as he wrung his hands and then nervously played with one of the buttons on his coat.

"Yes," Spike replied plainly without the slightest hint of his usual joking or flare as Angel stayed mostly still but ever so slightly nodded his head.

"Me to," Angel replied with a solemn expression on his face as he stopped playing with the button and began to nervously scratch the back of his neck.

"Let's not go over this again," Spike grumbled with a frustrated frown on his face as he closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

"We're not believe me, I'll always love Buffy, nothing that anyone or anything does or says will ever change that, but Andrew was right, she's obviously moved on to The Immortal and so have I, Nina's a great woman, I'm lucky that she doesn't find me," Angel said with a very been there done that expression on his face as he leaned over and picked up and old bolt, absentmindedly spinning the loose nut on it around and around.

"Annoying, stuck up, pompous, vain, ooh I almost forgot incontinent," Spike said with an amused half smirk on his face as he began to casually check off his list on his fingers before Angel cut in.

"Spike," Angel growled with a frustrated scowl on his face as his fists were clenched tightly together around the bolt as he did his best to keep calm.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself, you know me when I get on a roll," Spike replied with a bored shrug of his shoulders before silence overtook the two and Spike busied himself with looking around the room and then off into the night sky.

"All to well," Angel thought with a sad and somber expression on his face as inwardly he wondered if he could go through with any facet of the plan that was beginning to form in his mind.

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"You should get some sleep," Wesley said softly with a weary look on his face as he approached a nervous looking Nina, who stood by one of the boarded up windows but hid in the shadows to lessen the chance of her being spotted by anyone that might be watching.

"I tried, ever since that night in LA for some reason I can't get to sleep unless he's lying beside me, I don't know what it is," Nina replied with a tired yawn as she turned away from the window and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"I've never had that problem, I don't have any trouble getting to sleep, it's the staying asleep that's the problem, to many nightmares," Wesley replied with a soft tone of voice as he tried to make it sound like the nightmares were no big deal. At her seat by the front door Faith was supposed to be watching the streets outside but couldn't help but glance back at Wesley every few seconds, almost as if she expected something to happen suddenly.

"Really, care to share," Nina asked with a worried look on her face but genuinely interested intent as she and Wesley sat down in two old chairs that had a few springs sticking up through the seats.

"Not particularly, my nightmare's are a little to vivid, I try my best to keep from thinking about them," Wesley replied with a slightly awkward and anxious tone to his voice as he pushed back the sleeve of his coat and checked the time on his watch.

"Does it do any good," Faith asked with a calm tone to her voice as she briefly glanced away from the streets outside to Wesley's face.

"I wish that I could say yes, but I'm afraid that they're to deeply rooted into my psyche for them to just be wished away, oh well it's not like I really need to sleep anyway," Wesley replied with a sad expression on his face as he somberly shook his head before he added a bit of dark humor to his answer at the end.

"Tried that excuse, trust me…it doesn't work," Faith glumly interjected with an unhappy pout on her face as she slid off of her seat and walked towards Wesley and Nina.

"So you're the expert on nightmares now," Wesley asked with a slightly pointed scowl on his face, more because he was beginning to get a fairly powerful migraine than because he wanted to hurt Faith.

"When I was in prison it was to protect society and keep me from doing anything, but no amount of guard towers or concrete could keep out the nightmares about that night," Faith started to reply back with a forced look of calm on her face, as she fished around in her pocket for a cigarette, before Nina spoke up.

"Uh, what night," Nina asked with a confused and uninformed look on her face as she looked back and forth between Wesley and Faith, who locked gazes and the color and expression drained instantly from both of their faces at a shared realization.

"Nothing," Faith mumbled out rather gruffly through her hair as she turned sharply and quickly enough that some of if flipped around across her face.

"It's not important right now, it was my fault and," Wesley started to add with a nervous look on his face and passive wave of his hand before Faith stopped in her tracks and rolled her gaze up to the ceiling while clenching her hands into tight fists.

"Shut up…just shut up," Faith exclaimed with a frustrated and angry tone to her voice while she wore a guilty look on her face as she kept her back turned to Wesley and Nina.

"Did I say something wrong," Nina asked with a worried look on her face as she frantically hoped that either Wesley or Faith would let her in on the secret.

"Definitely, but we don't have time for a trip down memory lane, we've got company," Spike stated with a very solemn and serious tone to his voice and emotionless look on his face as he came striding into the room, with Angel walking in behind him, both carrying swords.

"How, I didn't see any," Faith started to say with a surprised and angry scowl on her face as she quickly ran everything that she had seen while on watch back through her mind to see if she had perhaps missed something. But coming up empty on what she could have missed she turned to Angel and started to open her mouth to ask a more detailed question when he sensed it and shook his head.

"A little birdie told me," Angel said with an almost darkly sarcastic expression on his face as he pulled the small stone that Fred and Cordelia had given him out of his pocket, it was glowing a very bright red.

END OF CHAPTER 4


	5. Same Old, Same Old

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Wicked R-Angel/Nina are fun to write for me in this story and they'll be sticking together.**

**Tamara-There won't be a joyous reunion between the groups, it'll more closely resemble the WWE's Royal Rumble.**

**Miss American Pie-Glad that you're liking the story, Wes and Faith aren't done yet…**

**Jess-Don't worry I won't abandon this story, I'm having too much fun writing it and people are reviewing it so I'll keep writing it.**

**CHAPTER 5-SAME OLD, SAME OLD**

"The hospitality in this place sucks," Nina grumbled with a sarcastic smirk on her face as Angel ushered her up the stairs.

"I'll remember to tell that to the clerk at the front desk," Angel replied with a sarcastic tone to his voice as he directed Nina over to a darkened corner of the upstairs.

"Just do me a favor and don't do anything stupid, I stitched you back together once and I'm not to eager to have to do it again," Nina replied with a sincere look of concern on her face as she pushed aside an old board and squatted down behind an old brick chimney.

"Remember whom you're talking to pet, ole Peaches here loves to play the hero and save the day," Spike interjected with a sly grin on his face as he drew the short sword, that he had been carrying since they left New York, out of the folds of his duster and then positioned himself near the top of the stairs.

"And you don't," Faith chimed in with a slightly mocking smirk on her face as she followed Wesley up the stairs, sliding the knife out of its sheath that was looped onto her belt in the small of her back.

"This can only end badly," Wesley mumbled out softly with a frustrated and anxious expression on his face as he drew his guns and backed into the darkest part of the upstairs level that he could find, making sure to not get anywhere near Nina so that she wouldn't have a chance of getting hit by their enemies that were aiming at him.

"You can say that again, we're not here for more than a few minutes and they're already sending out the bloody welcoming committee," Spike said with a very grave look of concern on his face as he backed up a bit further into the shadows.

"Who are they," Faith whispered across the darkened upstairs as she squatted down behind an old overturned chair that had the stuffing all ripped out.

"Vampires, doesn't sound like to many of them," Angel answered with a slight tone of relief in his voice as he picked up his favorite sword and ducked down into the darkness on the other side of the stairwell so that he was directly opposite Spike's position.

"Maybe we got lucky and they're only scouts," Nina whispered with a nervous smile on her face as she tightly gripped the stake that Angel had handed to her just before hurriedly ushering her up the stairs.

"We can only hope," Wesley started to say with an anxious tone to his voice before the sound of the vampires crashing through the door downstairs silenced them all for the time being.

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They all listened as well as they could while trying to stay as silent as possible given the circumstances. Angel and Spike stayed on opposite sides of the stairs, making sure that they'd be the first line of defense. Nina nearly dropped the stake in her hand when the first vampire came into view. She could see the ridges on his forehead, oddly enough with what looked like a tribal tattoo spread all over it. A hint of curiosity began to creep in before she saw what he was carrying. It looked straight out of a cartoon, but the vampire held a large bundle of sticks of dynamite with a large clock attached to it and several curly wires in between.

Faith's eyes grew wide at the sight of the bomb, sure she could handle drunks, vampires, and demons but a bomb was something different entirely. Across the way in the darkness Wesley's mind was already processing the presence of the bomb, trying to figure out why the vampire would even have the bomb. He didn't have a long time to think as Spike's sword flashed through the air, cleanly severing the vampire's head from its body and turning it into a pile of dust. Angel nearly shouted out in alarm as he rushed forward to catch the bomb, but the arrival of the next vampire up the stairs interrupted him and the bomb fell down beside the open stairwell and landed on a pile of old sheets.

"Bloody hell," Spike grumbled softly with an unhappy and nervous scowl on his face as the rest of the vampires figured out what had happened and hurried to attack.

"Nina stay here," Angel said with a very serious look on his face as he jumped back up to his feet and tossed his sword to Spike before he threw himself down the stairs and onto the three vampires that were charging up them.

"Watch her," Spike added with a none to pleased look on his face before he jabbed the two swords into the floor in front of him and then took off down the stairs towards the fight, just as Angel and the other vampires were getting back to their feet.

"This is getting out of hand," Wesley stated with an unhappy scowl on his face as he emerged from the shadows and hurried to the top of the stairs, guns drawn.

"What did you expect, since when have you known either of them to do anything the easy way," Faith replied with a fair amount of sarcasm in her voice as she stepped up beside Wesley, drew her knife, and waited for an opening in the fight down on the ground level.

"One could say the same about you," Wesley quipped back with a sly grin on his face, which in turn made Faith work hard not to smile back before the opening presented itself and she dove into the fray.

"What's happening," Nina asked with a worried tone to her voice after several moments of waiting and watching Wesley from her spot in the shadows.

"Well the good news is that Angel and the others are holding their own…the bad news is that reinforcements just arrived," Wesley replied with a nervous tone to his voice as he half turned back to Nina before a vampire noticed him at the top of the stairs and started to charge him. A hail of gunfire met the vampire, bringing enough force to knock him back down the steps and taking out a vampire that was about to attack Faith. Wesley was about to reload one of his guns when he saw Angel grab Spike by the shoulder and shove him back towards the stairs. Spike started to argue but then looked down at the bomb and everything clicked.

"Time to go," Spike shouted with a nervous and slightly scared look on his face as he punched out one vampire and then raced up the stairs past Wesley and pulled Nina out of her hiding place.

"What's going on," Nina asked with a fearful expression on her face as she did her best to keep from dropping her stake as Spike pulled her towards the second story window.

"Everybody out," Angel shouted at the top of his lungs as he followed Faith up the stairs at an almost frantic rate of speed before Spike leapt through the window and falling down towards the cold water below. Wesley barely had time to holster his guns before Faith barreled into him very hard, knocking both of them over the windowsill and out of the window, tumbling towards the blackness below.

"Angel," Nina started to say with a very scared look on her face before in one motion Angel picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and dove out of the window. The two had just cleared the window when the bomb went off, leveling the building, the one next to it, and littering the water with debris.

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Consciousness returned to Wesley slowly, helped though by the sensation of something soft and silky tickling his upper lip. From the way that every thought of movement made his entire body hurt he knew that he hadn't come out of the explosion unscathed. He hazarded to open one eye and found himself on a dimly lit shore, under a pier. When he looked to the side he could see Angel sitting protectively near a still unconscious Nina while Spike stood watch at the edge of the pier. When he glanced down he saw Faith lying on top of him looking like she was still out as well. Surprising himself the first thought that chanced itself into his mind was that she looked quite beautiful with her hair slicked down and messed up while sound asleep.

"Faith," Wesley softly asked with a nervous tone to his voice as he fully opened both eyes and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Nnh…Wes, that had better be a roll of quarters in your pocket," Faith grumbled back with a half asleep and almost adorable pout on her face before her eye slid open to small slits and she looked him straight back in the eye.

"What if it isn't," Wesley asked with a bit of a randy tone to his voice and a joking grin on his face as at first Faith just stayed where she was and studied his face.

"Then we'd both be in trouble," Faith softly replied before she scrunched her face up like she had a headache and pushed herself up and off of him so that she was sitting beside him.

"Good you're awake, we should get going it's almost sunrise," Angel said with a very serious but relieved look on his face as he picked Nina up into his arms and shook a bit of water out of his hair.

"No rest for the wicked eh, fair enough, didn't feel like forty winks anyway," Spike said with a relaxed sigh and shrug of his shoulders before he walked over and then gave first Faith and then Wesley a hand back up to their feet.

"Looks like our covers blown, the whole world must know that we're not in LA anymore," Faith said with an unhappy and slightly nervous look on her face as she tried to brush some of the sand and dirt off of her jeans.

"I don't believe so Faith, those vampires looked almost like they were surprised to see us, it's as if they were in the building on a separate mission and we just happened to be there," Wesley said back with a tired but deep in thought look on his face as he started to do his best to make himself look presentable.

"Well this area of the docks is pretty run down, maybe they were trying to clear out the old to bring in the new, without worrying about something like the law," Spike added with a thoughtful expression on his face as he ran a hand through his glistening hair and then stepped out into the early morning.

"Let's hope he's right, otherwise this could all blow up in our faces," Angel said with a very serious and grim look on his face as he gave both Wesley and Faith one last look before following after Spike.

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Twenty-four hours later found them all hunkered down in the back of an old railroad car as the train sped across Europe. Whenever the train would stop Angel and Spike would quickly go to the nearest farm and replenish their supply of pig's blood and then jump back on just as the train was leaving the station. Nina had slept most of the way after having left England while Faith kept one eye on the countryside whizzing by them and the other half concentrated on Wesley, still expecting something to go wrong with him at any moment. As they continued on their way across Europe every so often Angel and Spike would take turns playing tour guide, both seemingly trying to outdo the other with the tales of their earlier exploits.

"Would you two put a sock in it, some of us are trying to get some sleep," Nina grumbled, still half asleep, before she rolled over in her bed of hay and was soon back to sleep.

"I don't think that it's humanly possible for either of them to stay silent for to long, except when they're brooding, oddly enough that's one of the few things that they have in common," Wesley said softly with an almost amused expression on his face as he leaned back up against the stack of bales of hay and looked over at Faith.

"I don't know, Angel can be pretty tight lipped when he wants to be," Faith joked back with a sarcastic smirk on her face as she casually turned the blade of her knife back and forth and watching the patterns of reflected light on the wall of the train car.

"True, but if we're going to survive the three more days that it's going to take us to get to Rome then we need to find something else to talk about other than Angel and Spike's glorious past as bloodthirsty vampires," Wesley added with a quick roll of his eyes and deep breath as he tried to make himself comfortable before falling asleep.

"Wonder if we should pay Andrew a visit, make sure that he didn't spill the beans about my not being dead," Spike wondered with a curious look on his face as he scowled heavily while leaning to one side on his bale of hay to avoid the few rays of sunlight that managed to filter into the car.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea, he may have not told Buffy or Giles about you being back but we can't expect our luck to hold out forever, we have to strike before anyone knows that we're alive, as long as we have the element of surprise than we have a chance of stopping the apocalypse that Cordelia saw in her vision," Angel answered with a grim and unhappy scowl on his face as he stayed in the corner of the car, watching every inhale and exhale of breath that Nina made as she slept.

"Strike with what, everything that we had was lost in the explosion," Spike stated with an impatient and unhappy scowl on his face as he brushed some loose straw off of his duster.

"Well…the old mill should still be there, or at least the crypt that was under it," Angel replied with a hopeful look in his eyes though the expression on his face was one of concern and uncertainty.

"You stayed in a crypt, what about when they buried someone down there," Faith asked with a confused and surprised look on her face as she sat up a bit and wrapped her arms around her legs that were drawn up under her chin.

"We let them have their funeral, then after they were gone we dumped the body in the river and filled the vaults with weapons and other valuables, since they'd never open up one of them that was already supposedly in use it was the perfect hiding spot, but all of those weapons must be rusted through by now," Spike answered with an almost proud smirk on his face as he crossed his arms and retold a bit of the story.

"Some of them sure are beyond repair, but the others we can hopefully salvage and use, besides some of the weapons are enchanted to never rust or dull, they should still be as sharp as the day that we packed them away," Angel said with an optimistic look on his face before he stood up and made his way across the back of the car and sat down on a bale of hay opposite Spike.

"Alright, let's say that we are able to use those weapons there, what then, going to Giles and the others isn't an option, we have to start our search," Wesley started to say with a content sigh as his shoulders slumped a bit and he swallowed hard before Angel cut in.

"We'll get to the search after we take care of a little personal business," Angel declared with a very grim and deadly serious look on his face as he clasped his hands together and tapped his thumbs together in what was almost a thoughtful pose.

"Meaning what exactly," Faith asked with a curious look on her face and sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she slid her legs back out straight and looked up at Angel.

"We find The Immortal and say hi," Angel said with a sickly sarcastic half grin on his face as he so tightly clenched his hands together that the knuckles turned even whiter than usual.

"Right before we kill him," Spike added with a very determined and hopeful smile on his face before he pulled a cigarette out of one of his pockets, stuck it in between his lips, and began to search the rest of the pockets for a lighter.

"And kill anyone and everything that gets in our way, including the rookie slayers, I'm not backing down to a bunch of slayers again, they've all been trained by Giles and Buffy so their moves will be predictable, they won't stand a chance," Angel said softly with a very cold look in his eyes before his countenance softened considerably as Nina mumbled softly in her sleep and his gaze instantly went to her sleeping form.

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Angel's guess had been right on the money, the old mill or at least what was left of it was still there. It was an old mill that had used a paddlewheel driven by the river to power the grinding stone. But the river had long ago dried up and now the decrepit paddlewheel spun ever so slightly in the evening breeze. The mill was in the middle of a valley just inside Italy. Wesley and Faith had their doubts but Angel and Spike had led them straight to the building with enough time left to spare for them to gather enough firewood to begin. Faith helped Angel and Spike lift the old stone slab that had been placed over the opening to the crypt when the mill had ceased functioning.

"Now don't take this the wrong way but this is really creepy," Nina said with a nervous and slightly scared look on her face as she ducked out of the way of a large cobweb as Angel led the way with an old lantern that he had scrounged up.

"Said the werewolf to the vampire," Spike said softly under his breath with a daring half grin on his face as he walked calmly by Wesley and Faith as they intently surveyed the surroundings. The crypt wasn't very big when compared to some of the others that Wesley had seen but sure enough there were plenty of tombs carved into the walls, admittedly an ideal place to store weapons.

"So what now," Faith asked with a serious look on her face as she dusted off the plaque's on a few of the vaults, half checking the names just for something to do.

"We stay here and get ready while you go back to Rome and report back to Giles and Buffy, I have a feeling that you'll be able to make something up that they'll believe, Giles always was a bit to sure of himself, we'll get in touch when we're ready, you'll have fair warning before anything happens," Angel replied with a very serious look on his face as he set about tidying up the crypt and readying it for work, breaking out a small window at one end for the smoke to billow out of at the end.

"But," Faith sputtered with a shocked and slightly angry scowl on her face as she stepped forward and looked like she was ready to say more but she stopped talking when Wesley laid a hand on her shoulder.

"We need you to do this Faith, if you don't show up sooner of later Giles and Buffy will get curious and put their guard up, we can't have that happen, not now," Wesley said with a calm and certain tone to his voice and truth in his eyes as Faith looked back over her shoulder at her former watcher, but made no move to wrench his hand from her shoulder. Faith was about to protest when Wesley was suddenly overcome by a fit of coughing, only caught from dropping to a knee by a fast acting Faith as she held him up.

"Wesley," Angel exclaimed with a concerned look on his face as he instantly stopped what he was doing and stared straight at his friend.

"I'm okay…really, it must be the stale air down here, I think I'm going to go get a little fresh air," Wesley gasped out at first with a labored expression on his face as he slowly came out of the coughing fit and started to take a step back towards the exit.

"And I'll make sure that you get there," Faith said with a very nervous tone to her voice as she solemnly nodded back at Angel before helping Wesley walk back out of the crypt and into the cool night air.

END OF CHAPTER 5


	6. Party Crashers

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note:**

**Tamara-The fight comes next chapter but this chapter does have a little bit of the old Spike and Angel, no knockout gas used here**

**Jess-You asked for me to update and here it is, hope you like it**

**Angel of Darkness-glad you reviewed, here's the next chapter**

**CHAPTER 6-PARTY CRASHERS**

She carefully studied herself in the dirty mirror. Gone was the beautiful and carefree art student. In her place stood a scared and nervous woman that almost didn't recognize her own reflection. Having stopped caring about her appearance days earlier because of her fear of what Angel was planning her skin had grown rough in places and makeup was used sparingly. All of her clothes had a constant slept in look and her hair was lucky if it got washed every day. Her hands were now covered in small almost miniscule cuts and bruises that looked nothing like the hands that had painted portraits of her friend's only weeks earlier. The biggest change in her reflection was her hair, gone were her beautiful blonde locks. In their place was a mass of at times unruly dark brown hair. She had stolen a couple bottles of dye before they had left New York. Angel had told her to get them but at first hadn't told her exactly why. As he was helping her dye her hair he had explained it all. Wolfram and Hart and their allies would be looking for two vampires with souls that were traveling with an ex watcher and a rogue slayer, with the most easily visible one of the group being a young blonde werewolf. She hadn't wanted to change her looks but as she stared into the mirror, with Angel busy several feet behind her working the forge while Spike helped to reshape and reform the old weapons into new ones, Nina came to fully understand that she might not make it out of this fight alive.

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"It looks good," Angel said softly with an awkward look on his face before Nina jumped a bit after hearing his voice but not seeing his reflection in the mirror.

"Easy for you to say, and maybe next time gimme a heads up when you're sneaking up behind me okay," Nina said back with an unhappy and uncomfortable look on her face as she turned around and pouted, lowering her chin and trying to remain calm.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting that I don't have a reflection, it's not something that I think about a lot," Angel replied with a slightly embarrassed expression on his face as he walked up beside Nina and took her hands into his. Nina tried her best to not look him straight in the eye or stare at his bare chest dripping with sweat. The forging and re-forging of the weapons had made the crypt very hot and so it hadn't taken Spike and Angel long to strip off their sopping wet shirts and hang them up to dry. Nina had used one of the knives to cut her jeans into jean shorts and one of Angel's beaters, though the sweat stung her eyes even more than the few tears that sprang up.

"Well try to next time," Nina lightly snapped back with an embarrassed expression on her face as she turned and looked at the names on the vaults.

"Don't waste your breath pet, asking him to remember anything is like asking the Fuhrer not to invade Poland, tried it myself, trust me it doesn't work," Spike joked with a sly but tired smile on his face as he dunked a red hot piece of weaponry into one of the buckets of water.

"Shut up Spike," Angel growled back sharply with an angry scowl on his face as he snapped his head around to glare at his grandchilde.

"Don't get your knickers in a pinch Peaches, just trying to lighten the mood a bit, we're not planning a picnic here, like it or not we're planning a bloodbath, about time to," Spike replied with a seldom used, for him, tone of voice, one that no matter who heard it they knew that there was no arguing with his logic.

"Just remember that not everyone needs to die, the newly made slayers don't have a clue about any of this, though they'll blindly follow whatever Giles says they're not our enemy, so don't kill them," Wesley added with a very serious look on his face as he slowly walked back down into the crypt, leaning a little bit on the walls to keep himself upright.

"If you say so, you sure I can't have a go at that little bitch of a slayer that," Spike asked with an optimistic and hopeful look on his face as he perked up a bit.

"No Spike, forget about finding Dana, we have bigger fish to fry this weekend, just concentrate on getting us into Rome and the explosives," Angel replied with a cold and honest expression on his face as he turned away from Spike and watched Wesley weakly make his way through the crypt towards them before he returned his gaze to Spike. The hours came and went as Spike and Angel worked feverishly to get their select weapons back into working order. Wesley used the time well, doing his best to show Nina a few defensive moves and even spar with her a little. They had been firing crossbows for over an hour before Angel had walked up out of the crypt and told them that they would leave the moment the sun went down the following night.

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She walked into the party looking like the bell of the ball. Her dress was a bit to tight for her taste but it was the only thing that the tailor had in his shop that came close to fitting her on such short notice. She had sulked into Giles' office and told him a story that she had started making up ever since walking out of the crypt back in northern Italy. Sitting in his office in Rome she felt at the same time horrible for lying to him like this but excited because she knew something that he didn't. She nearly shattered her glass of water three times as she listened to Giles and a man that was introduced to her as Wesley's father. She knew that her mother had been less than stellar in her parenting duties but as she listened to Wesley's father she was stuck in total disbelief that the man that she had left only a day or two earlier in the crypt was even related to the pompous and arrogant bastard standing in front of her. For the first time the reasons that Wesley had been as he was when he first showed up in Sunnydale were crystal clear. Even with her strong will she could see how this shriveled up old man could take control of someone if given enough time.

Buffy and The Immortal had come in last, both wearing brand new outfits that Buffy had sworn weren't needed. Willow and Kennedy had stuck to a corner of the large ballroom, though for the entire day of the ball Willow had felt off, not able to keep anything down and feeling a bit lightheaded. Xander had tried to get her to lie down for awhile but she had told him not to worry and go make sure that none of The Immortals assistants were slipping off with any of the new slayers. It wasn't that she thought any of them were in any real danger, it was more like acting as a chaperone at a school dance. Though they were slayers and incredibly powerful they were still teenaged girls. Andrew was having the time of his life, entertaining the two women that he had brought with him as his dates. Xander and Rhona had tried to decide between them exactly how he had gotten two beautiful women to accompany him but after a time Giles had told them that it was a mystery for the ages and said that they should try and enjoy the party before it was over. Dawn tried her best to strike up a conversation with Faith all night but the latter had kept ignoring her, checking the clock ever few minutes, feeling more and more anxious as the time ticked by.

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The party was in full swing, with valets parking guest's cars, as two heavily cloaked figures vaulted from rooftop to rooftop heading towards the building where the party was being held. The guards on top of the building cursed their luck for getting the short end of the stick and having to stand guard out in the cool night air rather than being inside and enjoying the party. They were supposed to patrol the entire roof of the building but as the night began to wear on they stopped walking and sat down in the corners, listening to some music from a battery powered radio. The latest song has just started when the first guard went down, his neck snapped, his head very nearly ripped off. The second guard felt nothing as the blade sliced clean through his neck, his head tumbling off without much sound. The third and fourth guards barely had time to notice that something was wrong before a thrown dagger found its mark, buried into their foreheads. The two-cloaked figures hastily disposed of the bodies of the guards of that one corner before dispatching the rest. By the time that they were done sixteen guards were dead, piled into a large pile on the roof of a nearby building so as to not be noticed by any of the guards on the ground.

When the last guard on the roof was killed one of the figures slung a large heavy duffel bag over his shoulder, mock saluted the other figure and then hopped first down onto the roof of a catering truck and then to the ground. Ripping off his mask Spike felt energized for the coming battle. When he got around to the back corner of the building he found Wesley cutting the emergency water line to the building and hooking the building into the back of the large tanker truck that they had brought from the local church. Wesley and Nina had somehow managed to get to the priest to bless the water in the tank, something that had been made incredibly easier upon finding out that he was an old friend of the family. He had sworn to stay silent on the fact that he had helped them but alerted Wesley to the fact that his father was in Rome and still thought him to be dead.

"We're almost ready," Nina whispered softly with a very serious and scared look on her face, with a crossbow at her side, as she helped Wesley attach the pipes.

"Good, Angel isn't going to wait long to make his grand entrance and we have to be ready when he does," Spike replied with a grim look on his face as he set the large duffel bag on the ground and unzipped it.

"And the bombs," Nina asked with a nervous smile on her face as she brushed some of the dirt off onto her jeans.

"Got em right here, don't worry pet I know what I'm doing," Spike said with a reassuring look on his face as he held up two smaller bags that were so filled with explosives that they could not be zipped shut.

"She's in there you know, are you going to be able to go through with this," Wesley asked Spike with a very serious tone to his voice as he checked to make sure that the seals on the pipes were good.

"Yeah I know, don't worry about me I'll do my part, just hope that they're smart enough to know when they're beaten," Spike replied with an almost angry and frustrated scowl on his face as he set the two smaller bags down and began to arm himself.

"So we're just going to kill them all," Nina asked with a slightly sick to her stomach look on her face as she struggled to stay calm despite the circumstances.

"Not everyone, only anyone that's not human, the young slayers will all be in their teens so they'll be easy to spot, Giles and the others will more than likely try to protect them, leaving only The Immortal, his goons, and the other dignitaries and their security details to worry about, in the back of the building there's a vault that contains a book that we need, it's a collection of occult diagrams and symbols, it's our best bet to find out what the symbol that Cordelia saw in her vision meant," Wesley answered with a very grim and frustrated look on his face as he deemed the connections good and then watched Spike continue to arm himself.

"Okay so it's crash, boom, and we enter," Nina said softly with a very nervous look on her face as she checked over her crossbow.

"Right, just make sure that you don't point that thing in my direction, the last thing that I need is to have come all of this way only to get staked from behind by a misfired bolt," Spike grumbled with a slow nodding of his head as he finished arming himself before Angel leapt from the roof of the building and used a drainpipe to slow his descent before he landed on the ground beside Wesley.

"Are we good," Angel asked with a very serious look on his face as he made sure to look all three of them in the eye.

"So far so good, the tank is ready, Nina will be the first out and after I give her the okay signal she'll turn on the pump, anything remotely vampiric in there will incinerate in seconds," Wesley replied with a very confident tone to his voice as he pulled a knife from his pocket, wrapped it up in a blue handkerchief and then tucked it into one of the pockets of his coat.

"What's that for," Angel asked softly with a concerned look on his face as he leaned a bit closer to Wesley so that only he would hear.

"Faith, if we do this all ourselves she'll feel left out, and that's the last thing that we need, I slip her this in the middle of everything, without anyone noticing, and she becomes our ace in the hole," Wesley replied with a slightly amused smirk on his face as he turned to look at Angel before leaning over and picking up the shotgun that he had propped up on one of the wheels of the truck.

"Maybe we should have her stay undercover a little bit longer, they might not trust her story yet, and if they think that something's up or that she's hiding something," Angel said back with an unsure and slightly worried expression on his face as he pouted a bit when Nina walked up and straightened his collar.

"Then we're all fucked," Spike grumbled with an unhappy scowl on his face before he picked up the two bags of explosives and walked into the building through one of the back doors.

"No good, if she doesn't help us now and we do this then they'll know that she lied to them and if I know my father he won't hesitate to use whatever means necessary to get her to talk, I'm not going to let him torture her like he did me…she doesn't deserve that," Wesley said with a slightly awkward look on his face as he shook his head and dispelled Angel's idea before at the end he got all flustered and then looked away.

"Is he going to be a problem tonight," Angel asked with a very serious and grim look on his face as he walked around Wesley until he could look him in the eye.

"Not at all, I can't wait to see the look on his smug face when we crash the party, he's always prided himself on not working with those beneath him, remember how he…the cyborg him treated you when it visited, that would be my father on his best day, so don't expect any help from him," Wesley answered with a very grim and determined look on his face as he silently cursed himself for referring to the cyborg as his father.

"You sure he's your father, he doesn't sound anything like you," Nina asked with a perplexed expression on her face as she slung the quiver of crossbow bolts over her shoulder and head and worked it into its final position.

"I'm sure, but sometimes I wonder if there wasn't a mix up at the hospital, anything that could explain our differences," Wesley replied with a sad smile on his face as he checked his watch and then went silent.

"Spike should be almost done setting up the charges, after I land The Immortal and several of the honored guests are going to call for their guards, that's when Spike will detonate the charges, hopefully taking most of them out in the process," Angel began with a serious and somewhat nervous look on his face as he repositioned the sword strapped to his back.

"Then Nina and I will rush in and even out the odds a bit, aim for their hearts," Wesley added with a calm look on his face before he turned to Nina and slowly nodded his head at the crossbow that she held in her hands.

"But how will I know which ones are vampires, I don't…I can't shoot a human," Nina stammered out with fear in her eyes before her lower lip began to quiver ever so slightly.

"Hopefully they'll reveal themselves after the attack, if not…just shoot anyone that comes near you, human or not, this is to big for us to worry about who's human and who's not," Angel replied with an oddly comforting tone of voice as he walked over to Nina, took her chin in the palm of his hand, and then pulled her into a strong kiss.

"Are we ready," Wesley asked with a very serious and almost impatient look on his face as Angel and Nina broke the kiss.

"Yeah," Nina uttered softly with an almost dreamlike look on her face as she couldn't help but smile.

"Very," Angel answered with a very dark expression on his face before he looked to Wesley and then used the drainpipe to get back to the buildings roof.

"Here we go again, we damned few," Wesley stated with a very serious and almost angry scowl on his face before he cocked the shotgun, gave one final look to Nina, and then started off towards the building.

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The Immortal had pulled away from the throng of guests and well wishers with Buffy at his side. He quieted the music and then gave a short speech in which he thanked everyone for coming, relayed his hopes that they'd all be able to do this again sometime, and that he hoped that everyone would have a good time over the rest of the evening. An itch started to crawl up the back of Buffy's neck as she listened to The Immortal speak. She felt good being at his side but in the back of her mind she could feel something gnawing at her, after several months she decided that it was guilt, though about what she couldn't quite figure out. As The Immortal neared the end of his speech the itch grew worse and a tingling sensation went up and down Buffy's spine, the same sensation that only happened when Spike was near. Confused but not wanting to draw attention to her getting her hopes up again only to have them dashed Buffy began to feverishly scan the crowd, trying to make it look as if she were merely smiling at all of the guests. She searched the entire crowd for a shock of bleached blonde hair. But upon not seeing one she mentally kicked herself for believing that he wasn't dead. When he finished his speech with a flourish she shook herself from her delusion and began to clap, soon being joined by everyone in the room. The round of applause had just started to die down when the glass skylight situated directly overhead of a statue of an angel shattered downward, sending a shower of sharp glass everywhere. As she ducked for cover Buffy saw a blur of black drop down through the skylight out of the corner of her eye.

If this was a movie or music video instead of real life a hard rock song would start at the moment that his feet hit the base of the statue. He made sure that he had a good footing and then stood up slowly, keeping his head down the entire way. When he finally rolled his shoulders back he let out a small almost bored sigh before turning his head to one side.

"Hope I'm not interrupting," Angel said with a cocky grin on his face as those in the crowd gasped in shock, some thinking in error that this was all part of the show.

"Angel…," Buffy mumbled out in stark surprise a mere two seconds before his boot connected with her face.

END OF CHAPTER 6


	7. Royal Rumble

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey, who will be coming along with Illyria.**

**Author's Note: **

**Jess-Thanks, and Death to Hurricane Rita!**

**Tamara-Sorry but right now it's Angel's turn to get his shots in on Buffy, Spike's time will come later**

**Angel of Darkness-Kill Buffy...hmm...maybe, though then she'd be perfect for Spike, as undead as he is...**

**Wicked R-Buffy gets some in this chapter, hope you like it**

**Jenny G-And then some…**

**CHAPTER 7-ROYAL RUMBLE**

Chaos reigned immediately after Angel's boot struck Buffy's face. She grunted in pain as tears filled her eyes. She knew that her nose was broken but the fact of who had broken it still held the highest position in her mind. Covering her nose with her hands Buffy staggered backwards a few steps, allowing two of The Immortal's bodyguards to rush by her and straight towards Angel.

"Hmpf, how predictable," Angel said softly with a very confidant expression on his face before he raised both arms straight out in front of him and then click the base of his palm with his two middle fingers. The guards rushing towards him no more than got their hands on their weapons before two wooden stakes shot out of Angel's sleeves and dusted the two guards. Smiling like a fox that had just raided the hen house Angel leapt up into the air, did a front flip, and then landed a sharp kick to another guard before landing several feet away from Buffy.

"Get in here," Roger Wyndam-Pryce growled into a small device with an outraged sneer on his face before seconds later the doors to the ballroom were thrown open by a squad of heavily armed security guards, looking like they were employed by the new watchers council. Almost simultaneously the other doors to the ballroom were ripped open and the guards started to flood in.

"Shouldn't have done that," Angel said softly with a sly grin on his face before he sent his sexiest wink Buffy's way and then dove underneath the table. An eerily silent second past before Buffy and most of the party goers were blown off of their feet by a chain reaction of explosions that rocked the entire building to its foundation. Giles choked on the smoke and dust that had been thrown out by the explosions before he feverishly cleaned his glasses and took a look. Anyone and anything that had been standing near any of the doorways was either dead or soon to be dead.

"My God," Giles gasped with a look of total shock and disbelief on his face as he took in the sight of the dead bodies and then started to turn to look towards another of the doorways but was stopped abruptly by Angel's fists smashing first into the side of his jaw and then his stomach.

"Rupert…bet you didn't think that you'd ever see me again huh," Angel stated with a deadly amount of scorn and venom in his voice as he stood oddly still while Giles choked and coughed around on the ground at his feet.

"Who's that," A thoroughly terrified Vi screamed from her spot, crammed as tightly as she could get into one of the corners behind the food tables.

"Angel…he's evil again," Xander choked back in reply with a scared but also angry tone to his voice as he waved his hand back and forth in front of his face in an effort to clear the air to make it easier to breathe and see.

"No he's not," Faith snapped with an angry scowl on her face as she pushed a dead guard off of her and stood up, wanting more than anything to slap Xander upside the head but refrained from doing so.

"You hear that Rupert, still so quick to judge, anything and anyone that doesn't fit your or the new council's narrow minded and arrogant rules is evil and must be destroyed, or put on hold long enough to make sure that an innocent dies," Angel growled sharply down to Giles as he squatted down near the old watcher before he grabbed Giles by the throat and began to squeeze the life out of him as he lifted him back up to his feet.

"Angel no," Buffy shouted through the pain with tears in her eyes as she held one hand over her nose while using the other to push people out of her line of sight. Angel kept Giles where he was, still choking him, as he calmly turned his head to Buffy and smiled his best Angelus smile.

"Don't worry baby, Rupert and I are just having some fun," Angel said with a seductive and smug grin on his face as behind him two council guards drew their weapons and began to rush towards him. They only got a few feet before being gunned down in their tracks. The sudden outburst of hot lead flying through the air sent more shrieks and screams up into the air and everyone diving for cover once more.

"Buffy come here," The Immortal shouted to Buffy as he was crouched underneath one of the tables with several of his bodyguards surrounding him.

"Stop him," Roger shouted with an outraged sneer on his face as he drew a small handgun from behind his back.

"Stop him yourself you self righteous bastard," Wesley growled with a very scornful tone to his voice and look on his face as he calmly walked into the ballroom, serenely stepping over the dead bodies along the way.

"You, what is the meaning of this," Roger growled with an angry scowl on his face, thinking more about how angry he was at his son rather than the fact that he was supposed to be dead as a guard rushed towards Wesley, his game face fully on. Without letting the angry scowl drop from his face Wesley holstered his guns, ducked underneath the vampire's first swing, snapped out the collapsible blade that was strapped onto his wrist, and in one quick motion sliced off its head.

"You're a real piece of work you know that, no Wesley, I'm so happy that you're alive, now I see why you hate him so much," Nina stated with a look of almost disgust on her face as she walked hesitantly into the room through the doorway exactly opposite to the one that Wesley had entered through, her crossbow up and ready, pointed straight at Roger.

"Willow do something," Rhona said with a scared look on her face as she grabbed Willow's arm and pulled her out from behind one of the large potted plants.

"I," Willow started to say with a nervous and unsure look on her face before Xander took the initiative and grabbed the gun of one of the dead guards and aimed it straight at the back of Angel's head.

"Let him go Angel, I'm not going to tell you again, I pull the trigger I blow your brains out," Xander exclaimed with a very confidant and threatening tone to his voice as he tried to sound as manly and threatening as possible.

"Go ahead Xander, you always were a coward, always taking the easy way out, couldn't even be a real man and get married," Angel replied with a calm and mocking tone to his voice as he continued to choke Giles out.

"Angel please, let go of him, stop this now before you go to far, we can talk about this," Buffy pleaded with Angel as she slowly and carefully began to edge closer to him, not sue what was going on but knowing that Giles couldn't have to long left.

"So now you want to talk, that's rich," Angel started to say with a slowly growing look of anger on his face before he felt a crossbow bolt fly past him and kill one of The Immortal's guards that was trying to sneak up on him.

"What is the meaning of this boy, stop this before you're beyond my help," Roger angrily demanded with a furious look on his face as he fully pulled out his gun with one hand while motioning for the new slayers to get behind him with the other.

"I don't want your help father, your kind of help is what doomed the old council and it will doom this one as well, you're all just to damn stubborn to see it," Wesley replied sharply with an frustrated frown on his face as he retracted the blade back in his sleeve.

"To damn stubborn to even give your friends the benefit of the doubt, it was easy to write us off wasn't it, it fit right into your hands, giving you exactly what you wanted, and I'll bet that you were all for it…weren't you Rupert, making sure that there'd be no way that Buffy could ever be friends with someone like me," Angel added with a sinister and daring grin on his face as he looked first to Giles and then over and across the room as Nina was readying another bolt on her crossbow.

"Shoot him now Xander, pull the trigger you fool," The Immortal shouted across the room with a very condescending scowl on his face as he glared over at Xander. Xander looked surprised at how The Immortal was scowling at him and his hands began to shake as he took a more careful aim at the back of Angel's head.

"Put that away before you hurt yourself," Faith grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face before Xander turned back to her ever so slightly, leaving him open for one quick punch straight to the face. That was all it took and the former carpenter's eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the floor. Faith took a hold of the weapon casually as Xander crumpled to the floor.

"Faith…what are you doing," Dawn exclaimed with a look of shock and surprise on her face as she came out of her crouch just a bit to peer out over the top of one of the tables.

"I'd think it would be fairly obvious there D," Faith replied casually with a relaxed smile on her face as she half turned and grinned back at Dawn.

"I knew we couldn't trust you, you're nothing but filth…a disgrace to the other slayers, we should have killed you when we had the chance," Roger growled with a mocking sneer on his face as he aimed his glare, and his gun, straight at Faith's forehead.

"Over my dead body," Wesley shot back with a very determined look on his face as he stepped in between Roger and Faith, all while sliding the hilt of the knife that he had packed for Faith out of the sleeve of his left arm as he slid that arm behind his back. Faith's initial shock at his action and his words quickly wore off and the shiny metal caught her eye. A sly smile crossed her face as she reached out and took the knife, dropping the gun as if she could care less about it.

"Where is this coming from," Buffy asked with a heart wrenching look of sadness on her face as she inched closer to Angel while on the far side of the room, a hooded Spike darted in, grabbed Nina by the collar and hauled her back out again, much to her surprise.

"After everything that we've been through, after everything that we've meant to each other you turned your back on me without even hearing my side of the story, it's your fault that they died every bit as much as it is mine, and now you're going to pay," Angel replied with a very firm and threatening tone to his voice before he growled and flung Giles towards Buffy. Giles landed at Buffy's feet as she hopped back to get out of the way.

"This isn't right Angel, stop this," Willow called out with a very nervous and scared look on her face as she walked out into the open.

"You're right Willow it's not, but it's all that I got, you want a real answer then you should ask Giles about my telephone call asking him to help save Fred, he did nothing to help her and because of that she's dead…her organs cooked in her body, her death was to painful," Angel replied with an almost somber frown on his face at first before he cast a furious gaze in Giles' sputtering and choking direction and then leapt towards him.

"Angel no," Buffy shouted out in alarm as she jumped in front of Giles and spread her arms out wide, releasing her grip on her nose and allowing the blood to gush out.

"Stupid move Buffy, you're protecting the guilty party here," Angel growled with an angry scowl on his face before he slammed his fist into Buffy's jaw, then pounded his other fist into her stomach. As she doubled over in pain he finished his attack off with an elbow to the back of her head. Though not knocked out Buffy did see stars as she dropped to the floor, unintentionally slamming her nose into the carpet.

"You monster," Roger shouted with a furious expression on his face as he wheeled around and aimed his gun at Angel before squeezing off a couple of shots, hitting Angel in the shoulder with one of them and in the middle of his chest with the other. The force of the bullets knocked Angel back a couple of steps as everyone in the room held their collective breaths. Angel lowered his head just a bit before looking up at Roger through the tops of his eyes with a very serious scowl on his face as he raised one hand up and began to slowly wag his index finger back and forth. Andrew was eerily reminded of a similar scene in Terminator two but was to scared to speak and alert anyone else to the fact.

"Angel come on, we got what we came for," Nina shouted out with a very nervous and scared look on her face as she ducked back into the ballroom and fired off a warning shot towards The Immortal.

"Good, Wes…Faith, let's go," Angel said back with a slightly relieved look on his face as he fully picked his head up and glanced over at Nina. He started to turn back to Wesley and Faith but stopped when he sensed more guards rushing towards him. Effortlessly drawing the sword that was strapped to his back he slit open the stomach of one of the guards before he even knew what was happening. The other guards momentarily held their attack, giving Angel just enough time to strike. He skewered the next closest guard through the heart and then yanked his sword free before hacking off the left hand of the next guard.

"Time to leave Faith," Wesley said with a very serious look on his face as he turned around before she spun around and surprised the guards rushing towards them blocking the first attack, slashing the chest of the first guard and then dropping the next guard with an elbow first to the stomach and then to the back of the head.

"I'm ready," Faith replied with a smug smirk on her face as she turned her gaze back to Wesley without noticing the three more guards rushing into the room behind her, guns drawn and aimed straight at her.

"Look out," Wesley shouted in alarm and fear as he dove forward, grabbed Faith with one hand and then went down, barely missing the shots from the guards. Before they could recover and turn their aim his way Wesley got his bearings and blew out the left knee of each of them, smiling devilishly as they went down like a house of cards.

"Thanks, now come on," Faith said back with a slightly nervous smile on her face and just the slightest hint of a blush forming on her cheeks as she found herself lying directly on top of Wesley with his left arm looped around her waist holding her close.

"Boy…don't you dare run out on me, come back here," Roger growled with an outraged sneer on his face as Wesley released his grip and together the two got up and then headed for the exit as Angel ran back to the center of the ballroom and leapt back up onto the table that he had first landed on.

"Another time perhaps," Wesley replied with an invigorated smile on his face as Faith flashed the elder Wyndam-Pryce the bird and then grabbed the front of Wesley's shirt and dragged him out of the ballroom. To this Roger howled in anger and squeezed off a few more shots that followed the retreating Wesley and Faith, barely missing them by inches. When he ran out of bullets he kept pulling the trigger, with the eerily sad clicking sound of an empty clip ringing throughout the room.

"I'd love to stay and thin the herd out a bit but I have more important matters to attend to," Angel stated with a confidant smile on his face as he sheathed his sword before he leapt straight up, grabbed the edge of the window that he had crashed through earlier, and hauled himself up and out of sight, but not before casting one quick look back and catching a glimpse of a tattoo on The Immortal's back through a hole in his shirt and jacket. The Immortal's vampire security force began to rush in and secure the room two minutes before the fire alarm went off and the sprinklers sprang to life, dusting over thirty vampires and soaking everyone else.

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They hurried into the sewers and raced off into the darkness for almost a mile before Angel ordered a halt and pulled Nina aside. She had been having trouble keeping up for almost half of the time and when Angel finally set her down on an old palette she couldn't help but slump forward against him, almost completely out of breath. Spike stayed on his feet, keeping watch in the middle of the tunnel. At first Wesley tried to appear that he was fine and was going to scout on ahead but he had barely rounded the corner when a fit of coughing had overtaken him and he had started to pitch forward.

"Wesley," Faith exclaimed with a scared look on her face as she rounded the corner behind him, saw him start to fall forward, and rushed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"No…I'm okay," Wesley started to say with a tired and worn out look on his face before he was overcome with a fit of violent coughing.

"No you're not, now stop saying that…you're scaring me," Faith shot back with a very worried look in her eyes as she guided Wesley over to one of the walls and then helped him to sit down.

"Sorry about that…never meant to," Wesley said softly with a tired look on his face as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Faith knelt down in front of him, straddling his right leg in between her legs.

"I know you didn't Wes, but you did anyway," Faith said with a very concerned tone to her voice as she laid her right hand on Wesley's left cheek and then lifted his head up until she could look him in the eye, with her hand still on his cheek.

"Another one of my failings I guess," Wesley weakly joked back with a half hearted smile on his face as he reached his left hand up and placed it over Faith's right hand.

"Sorry Wes…but you don't have the market cornered on that one, we've all fucked," Faith started so say back almost in a soft whisper before Wesley spoke up.

"Interesting choice of words," Wesley interjected with a randy grin on his face before he felt Faith's hot breath on his lips and she leaned in closer until their foreheads were just about to touch when it happened.

"Wesley, Faith…you guys okay," Angel asked with a concerned look on his face as he rounded the corner, just as Faith shot back away from Wesley and ripped her hand out of his grasp, turning her face away from Angel and trying not to blush.

"Of course Angel…I just need a minute to rest," Wesley replied with a frustrated edge to his voice before he did his best to smile reassuringly up at Angel and then let out the breath that had been holding in since interrupting Faith.

"Good…we'll stay here a few more minutes and then continue on, these bullets are really starting to annoy me," Angel replied with a relieved smile on his face before he turned around and walked off back around the corner, still muttering to himself.

END OF CHAPTER 7

P.S.-Just wondering a bit who people want the pairings to be and how should I get them together, I'm keeping my usual ships of Wesley/Faith and Spike/Buffy(which will happen but rest assured it won't be easy and her being with The Immortal will not be forgotten about and will bring its own share of problems). Other than that I'm open to suggestions, except I do like Nina/Angel…


	8. Decompressing

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note:**

**Bob-from-Accounting-Don't worry about Illyria, she'll be showing up soon, possibly in this very chapter…**

**Jess-Thanks, the fireworks have only just begun…**

**Angel of Darkness-Well Wesley/Faith and Spike/Buffy are always couples in my stories, this story will be no exception, though don't expect anything quick for Spike/Buffy**

**J-Angel tends to overdo it when he's angry, and has shown no qualms about killing people when they're evil. Buffy and her group will get some characterization and become more well rounded and no I won't demonize Buffy, well Roger maybe…but imho Buffy and her group got a little to comfortable in their new roles and got a little paranoid about Angel and the others, but as you'll see in this chapter, Angel still has his friends…**

**Tamara-Glad you liked the chapter and there'll be more Wes/Faith in the future, as for TGIQ and Buffy/Spike that episode won't be forgotten as we'll see glimpses of The Immortal's true intentions with Buffy, and as for Roger…yeah he is a bastard isn't he.**

**CHAPTER 8-DECOMPRESSING**

The attack on the party was all over the papers the next morning. Though many of the news crews had been informed exactly what had happened oddly enough each and every one of them reported that a gang hyped up on PCP had attacked the gathering. Nina had gone around the city gathering up many different newspapers so that they could get a wide array of opinions on the event. They had ended up bedding down in the condemned hulk of an old hotel that was scheduled to be demolished in one week.

"Anything yet," Faith asked with a concerned look on his face as she entered the room that Wesley had taken over. After exiting the sewers Faith had slipped back into her hotel with Angel's help and taken a quick shower before grabbing all of the clothes that she could fit into a duffel bag and then disappeared into the night minutes before the scared and confused new slayers returned.

"Unfortunately no, I've looked through almost five hundred pages of glyphs, Sanskrit, hieroglyphs, tattoos, and other such markings and have found absolutely nothing that will be of any help to us," Wesley replied with a solemn expression on his face as he looked up from the book and rubbed his eyes.

"Ya lost me at no," Faith said with a sullen frown on her face as she walked by Wesley and sat down in one of the old creaky chairs.

"Sorry I…what's wrong," Wesley started to reply with a sheepish smirk on his face before his face grew serious and concerned as he more closely studied Faith's face.

"They're never going to trust me again you know, not after last night, the worst part about it all is that some of them were actually starting to trust me," Faith replied with a guilty expression on her face as she looked embarrassed to even be admitting anything to Wesley.

"You're right they probably won't, I guess the only comfort that you can have is that you did what you did because it was the right thing to do and was what needed to be done," Wesley said with a not completely convinced about what he was saying look on his face as he glanced back and forth between Faith's face and the text of the book.

"Still doesn't help me Wes, and besides they don't know that it was the right thing to do…helping you guys, they're just going to see me as the traitor…again," Faith grumbled with an unhappy pout on her face as she hid her face with her hands and groaned softly.

"I wish that there was something that I could say or do to change things and make everything right…I really do Faith, but I can't, we just have to press on and hope that everything gets worked out in the end," Wesley replied with a somber look on his face as he kept looking straight ahead towards Faith before she finally lifted up her head and looked back at him, a subtle smile playing on her lips.

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"This is unacceptable, how dare they take such an action," Roger growled with an angry scowl on his face as he read down the list of the damages to the ballroom.

"They probably didn't think that they had any other choice, they looked desperate," Willow softly replied with a nervous and sad expression on her face before he cowered a bit under Roger's intense glare and went back to sipping her tea.

"Desperate for our blood maybe, did you see him…he's evil again I swear," Xander interjected with a very grim and upset tone to his voice as she impatiently paced back and forth in front of the bookcase of Giles' study.

"We don't know that for sure Xander, he could have killed Giles but he didn't, and Faith only knocked you out, she didn't exactly beat you up," Willow said back with a slightly unconvinced look on her face as she swirled her tea around a bit and frowned.

"But she hit him and sided with Angel, she betrayed us…again," Dawn interrupted with a frustrated scowl on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at the pile of newspapers on the table in front of her.

"It would seem so, I don't see how we missed it," Giles added softly with an embarrassed and guilty expression on his face before he reached up and gently massaged his throat, the bruises clearly evident.

"I told you this would happen if you let that harlot back into the council's good graces, she's nothing but trouble, in the old days cleaners would have been sent after her and this mess would have been resolved promptly," Roger stated with a very confidant look on his face as he spoke about the good old days but a look of absolute disgust crossed his face when he spoke about Faith.

"You tried that already, and it failed," A bandaged up Buffy said from the doorway, with her arms crossed defensively in front of her chest and it looked as if she hadn't slept a wink since the ball.

"Only because that pitiful excuse for a son of mine and that damn vampire helped her out," Roger growled back with a disapproving scowl on his face as he kept his gaze straight and didn't turn to even look at Buffy.

"Why do you always do that, I've known you for only a few months and so far I don't think that I've ever heard you say one good thing about Wesley, he's your son," Willow questioned with an uncomfortable and upset frown on her face as she set her tea cup down on the table in front of her and turned her gaze to Roger.

"He's a failure and that's all there is to it, and now he's gone and sullied the family name by associating with that thing," Roger answered with a very displeased look on his face as he looked away from Willow and towards the bookshelf.

"Angel is not a thing, he's a friend," Buffy shot back

"Some friend, he very nearly killed Mr. Giles here last night and you call him a friend…are you sure that your personal feelings for him aren't getting in the way of your duty, like they did with that other abomination," Roger spat out with a condescending expression on his face as calmly leaned forward and set his cup back down onto the table.

"Don't you ever talk about Spike like that," Buffy nearly screamed out in a rage as all of her pent up emotion burst out of her and she leapt forward, grabbed Roger by the front of his shirt, and hauled him up out of his chair, balling up her free hand into a tight fist and looking as if she were about to take a swing at him.

"I seem to have struck a nerve," Roger stated with an eerily calm expression on his face and tone to his voice as he remained calm and didn't struggle against Buffy.

"Easy Buffy," Xander shouted in alarm and fear as he looked first to Willow and then to Giles, silently asking them for help.

"Buffy no…let him go," Dawn added with a scared and sad tone to her voice as she jumped up out of her seat and laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder.

"But he…fine," Buffy started to argue with an overworked look on her face before she unclenched her fist and let go of Roger's shirt.

"I believe that it would be a good idea if we would all just calm down and talk about this rationally, obviously Angel was after something last night, attacking us seems to have only been a diversion for the real crime," Giles stated with a nervous look on his face as he walked up and stepped in between Buffy and Roger.

"What was taken," Xander asked with a concerned and confused look on his face as he stayed standing for fear that Buffy might go after Roger again.

"A particularly valuable ancient text, containing a wide variety of rare etchings, tattoo's, and markings, it is an impeccable reference book, retrieving it must be our top priority, everything else can wait," Roger answered with a very serious and nervous look on his face as he adjusted his collar and smoothed out his shirt.

"But how, who took it, Angel, Wesley, Faith and that new girl were in the ballroom the entire time, they must have had someone else with them," Xander wondered aloud with a scared look of disbelief on his face as he ran a hand through his hair while putting the other one on his hip and turning to look at Giles.

"That would be the most likely answer, however the book in question was guarded by the highest caliber security lasers with heat sensing technology, had anyone gone in there to steal the book or anything else the alarm would have gone off, alerting us to the theft," Roger said back with a curious look on his face before he closed his mouth and thought deeply.

"But the alarms didn't go off," Dawn said softly with a confused and concerned look on her face as she turned first to Giles and then to Buffy.

"You're right, unless that person's temperature was low enough that it would be equal to or close enough to room temperature that the sensors wouldn't even notice that anyone was in the room," Willow added with a very deep in thought look on her face as she was mulling over all of the different variables in her head.

"But the only ones with a temperature that low are vampires, and it couldn't have been Angel, do you think that they dug up Drusilla somewhere," Xander observed with a lost look on his face as he rubbed his hands together in frustration and then turned to the others for help.

"It's possible, but stealth isn't Dru's strong suit, the only one that could have done it that Angel would have trusted that much would be Spike…but it couldn't have been him," Buffy said with a slight shrug of her shoulders before her eyes grew a bit misty at the end of her conclusion.

"And since William the Bloody is currently deceased, consisting of no more than a small pile of dust underneath the remains of the city of Sunnydale this presents us with a grave problem," Roger said with a very grim frown on his face as he walked over towards Giles' desk and then leaned ever so slightly against it.

"Um actually," Andrew started to say with a nervous and very scared look on his face before he found that he couldn't force the words out of his mouth.

"Well was is it boy, spit it out," Roger growled with an angry scowl on his face as he turned sharply towards the former nerd.

"Well you see…The Immortal's on the phone for Buffy, he says it's urgent," Andrew started to stammer out with a very nervous look on his face before he blurted out the rest, smiled sweetly, and then ran off. Buffy took a deep breath, tried her best to calm down, and then went to answer the phone.

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"Did I do the right thing," Angel asked with a guilty expression on his face as he held an old broken children's toy in his hands.

"You did what you thought best, don't beat yourself up over it, you brood enough as it is," Spike replied with a nervous sigh as he shook his head and pushed off from the wall that he had been leaning against.

"I do not," Angel shot back with a juvenile frown on his face as he looked up at Spike and nearly dropped the toy.

"You do too Peaches, you brood so much that it's how your friends know when something's wrong, if something's bothering you and you're not brooding then we're all in trouble," Spike countered with a grimly amused expression on his face as he started to walk across the room towards Angel.

"Nothing about this is simple, sure we got the book but now Buffy and the new council want us dead, and Wolfram and Hart has to know where we are now, we can't stay in Rome much longer, we have to leave tomorrow," Angel said with a defeated look on his face as he turned the toy over and over again in his hands while staring at it closely.

"Right, I'll go tell the troops," Spike replied with a look of solemn agreement on his face as he nodded his head and then left the room.

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She had been found at the bottom of a large pile of rubble, covered in blood, and not expected to live through the night. The doctors and nurses had been stunned when they had been unable to get any of her vital signs. Her skin was strangely hard and no needle could break through. She seemed to have no discernable heart rate or pulse. They tried to use her fingerprints but found that they were gone, the pads of her fingers and toes were completely smooth. One of the lab techs had told a cousin of his about the strange woman. A week later a team from the new watchers council had arrived and claimed the woman, disappearing before their credentials could be verified. They had taken her to a secret location in the hills surrounding Rome that night and ever since had been trying to discern her identity. When the sun came up on the day after the incident in the ballroom each and every person that was trying to figure out her identity lay dead, their necks snapped and bodies piled into the garage. Not understanding how to drive a car she instead was forced to walk the several miles in between the house that she had been confined in and the city itself. Her wounds, most of which had yet to fully heal, finally took their toll on her as she passed by a shop frequented by members of several covens, with one of their members being one Willow Rosenberg. A few witches had been there that day and when she collapsed they had picked her up and taken her to the hospital, but not before placing a call to inform the council, as the woman that had collapsed bore a striking resemblance to a young woman that Willow had described as being a part of Angel's inner circle.

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"Are you cold," Wesley asked softly, the concern clearly evident in his voice, as he slowly approached Faith from behind. She was sitting with her legs crossed, facing the setting sun, on the roof of the old hotel. She shivered a bit before answering.

"Not really, I've been through worse than…uh thanks," Faith started to reply with her usual confidant tone of voice and smirk on her face before Wesley took off his coat and then laid it over her shoulders. She nervously smiled up at him and thanked him as she pulled the coat tightly around her body, getting a whiff of liquor, gun oil, and oddly enough sawdust along the way.

"Don't mention it, if I hadn't given you my coat then I could never again even have a prayer of calling myself a gentlemen," Wesley replied with a soft smile on his face as he stiffly walked over and sat down beside Faith. Faith let out a small chuckle before she replied.

"You…a gentlemen, sorry but I don't buy it," Faith shot back with a sly grin on her face before she raised her chin up a bit and shook her head slowly.

"I'll have you know that before I came to Sunnydale and met you I was a very fine upstanding English gentlemen, but then you came along and I wound up here," Wesley replied with a slightly defensive expression on his face as he squinted against the last few rays of sunlight and turned to Faith.

"You winding up here isn't all my fault, you did enough of screwing up of your own damn life yourself," Faith shot back with a slightly angry pout on her face as she turned away from watching the sun to look at Wesley, suddenly having to do her best to not look him in the eye.

"You're right, I've made enough mistakes in my life that I'm the one that has to take most of the responsibility for me winding up here sitting on this rooftop talking to you, but at least it's not raining," Wesley replied with at first a slightly solemn look on his face as he slowly nodded his head before he turned to Faith and gently reached over and brushed some hair off of Faith's face and back behind her ear. Faith was surprised to feel a shiver travel through her entire body when Wesley's hand came into contact with her cheek.

"Huh, what does that have to do with," Faith started to ask with a confused look on her face before Wesley took a gamble and pulled her close to him. Reluctantly at first Faith tensed up, half expecting Wesley to let go. But when he didn't she slowly began to relax before finally laying her head down on his shoulder and relishing in the close physical contact. Neither noticed the azure-eyed vampire checking up on them from the safety of the darkened stairwell.

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"How are Wes and Faith," Nina asked with a nervous and cold look on her face as she pulled Angel's coat more tightly around her body and tried not to shiver.

"Fine," Spike answered with a calm look on his face before he slid his hands into his pockets and walked into the room.

"That's good," Nina replied with a grimly happy expression on her face as she looked up at Spike and tried to sound happy.

"You okay pet, you seem a little nervous," Spike asked softly with a genuine amount of concern in his voice as he walked through the room until he was standing a foot away from her.

"Nervous…me nervous, whatever gave you, yeah okay I give…I'm nervous, ever since last night Angel's been all serious and wanting to be alone, do you think I did something, is this my fault," Nina replied with at first a false sense of confidence look on her face as she brightened up before her countenance fell and she looked scared and hoping for Spike to answer quickly.

"What…no luv, no, this isn't your fault, he's always been like this, ever since he and I first met he's been a little off his rocker, when he falls in love he falls hard, often despite his best efforts, and contrary to popular opinion he can't let anyone go, a part of him is still hung up on Darla and always will be, the same with Buffy," Spike replied with what he hoped was a soothing and supportive tone of voice as he pulled one of the old chairs closer to Nina and sat down in it.

"But you and her were together right, what about," Nina asked with a somewhat more confidant look on her face as she posed the question to Spike.

"Buffy and I are a different story entirely, our love is different, Angel was her first love, it's hard for anyone to get over their first love, if anybody truly can, he just takes everything personally and holds it in, letting it eat away at him," Spike started to reply with a solemn and serious frown on his face as he did his best to answer Nina's delicate question before she interrupted him.

"Sounds a lot like someone else that I know, you and he are a lot alike you know," Nina interjected with a steadily growing sly grin on her face as she seemed to gain confidence and relax by the second as she sat up and cocked her head to one side. Spike tried to say something back but he couldn't find the words. "Don't worry I know how you two hate to be compared to one another, but if you both somehow managed to get a slayer like Buffy to fall in love with you then you both did something right, and if I didn't know better I'd think that even after Angel interrupted the party she was looking for someone, I think that she was looking for you Spike," Nina added with an honest expression on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest underneath Angel's coat as Spike sat there and scowled as he couldn't think of a proper comeback to her statement.

END OF CHAPTER 8

P.S.-Thanks to all for reviewing and here's another chapter, I changed the chapter a bit as the original draft had Andrew telling Buffy and the others about Spike and a Wes/Faith kiss, but I decided that it was to soon for both so I changed it.

To those in the path of hurricane Rita, in all honesty good luck and God bless, hope to hear from you on the flipside.


	9. The Lady Comes A Callin

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Notes:**

**Jess-Thanks for reviewing, I loved writing the Wes/Faith bits**

**J-Sorry about the length but there was a lot for Wes and Faith to talk about and I just didn't feel right splitting it up into two chapters. As to Willow remember though she's held her anger and feelings in a couple of times until she's exploded later on.**

**Tamara-Yeah The Immortal already has his hooks into Kennedy. As for her two friends well one of them is truly bad and helping The Immortal corrupt Kennedy while the other actually has genuine feelings for the slayer, though as to which is which…well I won't tell you just yet.**

**CHAPTER 11-THE LADY COMES A CALLIN**

"Come here often," Nina said softly with a winning smile on her face as she sat down on the stool next to Andrew, who jumped at her words at first before he saw her and blushed deeply.

"Huh what, oh uh no, first time," Andrew replied with at first a scared look on his face before he turned his head and saw Nina smiling innocently back at him.

"Hey me to," Nina said back with a warm smile on her face as she used her right index finger to pull over a small bowl of pretzels and then pick one up.

"Look this isn't a good time," Andrew started to say with a down in the dumps frown on his face before Nina surprised him and leaned on his left shoulder by laying her bent right arm into the crook of his neck.

"Sorry, but you know I've heard that it helps if you talk about it," Nina replied with a genuine smile on her face as she offered Andrew a pretzel.

"I don't know," Andrew mumbled with a nervous blush on his face as he tried not to think about how beautiful Nina was and how close she was at the moment.

"Come on it can't be that bad, how about this, you tell me your story and then I'll tell you mine, and if in the end your story is worse then I'll do whatever you want to do," Nina said back with a slightly daring grin on her face and look in her eyes, that Andrew caught, before he couldn't help but grin and then laugh.

"You'll probably think that I'm crazy," Andrew said softly with an embarrassed look on his face as he laughed a bit and then began to nibble on the edge of the pretzel that Nina had handed to him.

"Somehow, I doubt that," Nina replied with an amused smirk on her face before she picked up another pretzel and listened to Andrew's story.

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She sat there, silently staring at the screen, desperately trying to uncover some small clue in the mountain of emails on the screen in front of her. After hearing about Illyria and Fred's death Willow had excused herself and returned to her room. She had opened up her laptop and began to slowly and painstakingly go through every email that she had saved, hoping that somewhere among them she would find her answers. She couldn't help but be sympathetic as Fred described her ongoing struggles to get Knox to admit that they were over and to stop giving her gifts. Willow had been in a celebratory mood the night that she had gotten the email telling her about what had happened the night that she had finally scraped up enough courage to actually kiss Wesley. Fred's joy had been almost pouring out of the screen through her email that night. After that the emails had mostly been about the newest threats that had been thwarted, rivaled only by the bits about Wesley. But then suddenly they had abruptly stopped coming. Willow had sent almost a dozen emails to Fred, hoping that her friend had just been too busy to reply. But the appearance of Illyria and how she had killed the new slayers showing little to no emotion had confirmed her worst fears. She could only sit there and wonder how she had missed it.

"Hey Willow you in here," Kennedy called out with a concerned look on her face and tone to her voice as she turned the knob and opened the door. Willow didn't move or react to Kennedy's voice, merely reading the beginning of the next email. "You okay, Buffy said that you seemed pretty broken up about your friend Fred and…Willow," Kennedy started to continue without missing a beat as she let out a sigh of relief while making her way across the darkened room to kneel down beside Willow's chair and lay a hand on her lovers knee.

"I should have seen it, I should have done something," Willow said softly with an almost doped up expression on her face and tone to her voice as she slowly turned her head away from the screen and looked through Kennedy more than at her.

"This wasn't your fault baby, she knew what she was getting into when she took the job, you did the best that you could," Kennedy started to say with a comforting and soothing tone of voice as she started to pull Willow into a reassuring hug.

"It wasn't good enough, when Giles and Roger told us about Angel taking over Wolfram and Hart I went along with their ideas, I let myself believe that they were right, I had my doubts, but I didn't say anything…and now it's to late, everything's to messed up," Willow snapped angrily at first before she squeezed her hands up into fists and tried to slow the torrent of tears that were beginning to make their way down her cheeks.

"Are you sure they were wrong, Angel attacked us remember, he nearly killed Mr. Giles," Kennedy said back with a confused look on her face as she pulled Willow into a tight hug and laid her head on her shoulder.

"He was upset, angry, he tried to get help for Fred before she became that…thing, but Giles ignored him, he didn't even tell me, I could had saved her," Willow replied with a very sad and emotional tone to her voice as she struggled to get the words out before the tears began to flow.

"Who knows maybe you still can, if we could just," Kennedy started to suggest with a concerned look on her face before Willow sniffed and pulled away.

"Did you change your perfume, I don't remember you wearing," Willow started to say with a curious and surprised look on her face as Kennedy's heart raced.

"Uh…yeah, you know change is good and all of that," Kennedy started to shakily reply with a nervous and what she feared was a guilty smile on her face before the door opened and Buffy stepped into the room, looking like she could use more than a few hours of sleep.

"Hey Will, you okay, Giles needs us to…oh, sorry," Buffy started to say with a tired yawn as she entered the room before her eyes adjusted to the lack of light and she saw Kennedy and Willow together.

"Forget about it, we were just…damn what's he want," Kennedy started to stutter out in an awkward reply before her pager went off and she checked it, seeing that The Immortal was in need of her services.

"What does who want," Buffy asked with a confused and slightly suspicious look on her face as she pushed up her shirtsleeves while walking towards Willow.

"Your boyfriend, he just paged me, probably wants to know what we've found out about Angel's whereabouts, sorry baby but I gotta go," Kennedy replied with a bored sigh as she looked up at Buffy before she gave Willow one last tight squeeze and a kiss, and then stood up and left the room. Buffy stayed silent watching Willow, who was glancing back at the doorway, for several seconds before Willow finally spoke up.

"Do you think she's seeing someone else," Willow asked with a worried look on her face but terrified look in her eyes as she turned her gaze from the doorway to Buffy's face, leaving her old friend little time to try and think up an answer.

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"Your father's a dick," Faith grumbled with an unhappy frown on her face as she slid off of her cot and turned to Wesley.

"You don't know the half of it, the stories I could tell," Wesley mumbled back with a frustrated smile on his face as he tried to get comfortable in his cot.

"So why don't you, we've got the time," Faith started to ask with a tired smile on her face before the door opened and three guards entered the small cell, two grabbed Faith and forced her out while the third aimed the point of a spear right at Wesley's throat. Wesley sat in stone silence for the entire time that Faith was gone, his only movement being the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out. Several hours later they brought Faith back to the cell, seemingly very unhappy that she had told them nothing. Wesley instantly got up from his cot, despite the pain that shot through his body at the sudden movement, and picked Faith up and carried her over to her coat and laid her down. As he looked down at her he saw that both of her eyes were swollen shut and she looked worse than the last couple of days that they had tortured her.

"Faith…Faith," Wesley softly whispered with a worried look on his face as he peered down at her with his one good eye as the other was still mostly swollen shut.

"Nnh…fuck off, you're not getting," Faith started to grumble back with a pained look on her face before she instinctively reached up with her hands and touched Wesley's face. Almost immediately the look of pain and anger on her face slackened and she fought back tears of relief.

"It's over Faith, you're done, you didn't tell them anything," Wesley said softly with a hopefully reassuring tone to his voice as he reached up and laid his left hand flat over Faith's right hand while wiping away a few of her tears with the other.

"Can't, I can't last much longer, they're to powerful," Faith gasped back with a pain filled scowl on her face as she tried to sit up, then almost fell back, but finally succeeded with Wesley's help.

"I don't think that we're going to be here much longer, they can't keep us hidden away forever," Wesley replied with a sarcastically optimistic tone to his voice as he sat down on Faith's cot behind her and wrapped one arm loosely around her waist in an effort to steady her.

"No, not this time, no five by five for us, we're going to die here," Faith grumbled back weakly as she shook her head before Wesley started to pull her shirt off over her head, doing his best not to get the fabric to stick to any of her fresh wounds.

"Only if we lose our heads," Wesley said back with a serious look on his face as he finished pulling Faith's shirt off and then he pulled her a bit closer so that he could support her weight with his right shoulder. With his left hand now free he reached out and was about to unbutton Faith's jeans when she surprised him by laying her hand on top of his.

"Who says we won't…heh, you sure you can do that by yourself, don't get any bright ideas," Faith said with a weak version of her usually proud and confidant tone of voice as she felt oddly content through the pain and the heat before she felt a bead of sweat slide off of Wesley's body and onto hers.

"Perish the thought," Wesley replied unintentionally huskily under his breath into Faith's ear, so much so that a shiver went down her spine and she couldn't help but crack a smile before pushing his hand away and painfully slipping her jeans off. Wesley pulled them the rest of the way off after Faith had gotten them down to her knees.

"Tell me a story," Faith said softly with a very tired and sleepy expression on her face as she leaned back further into Wesley and let her left hand flop down onto his knee.

"A story, that's a little odd don't you," Wesley started to say with a confused and surprised look on his face before Faith tilted her head back a bit and then turned it towards where she guessed Wesley's face was.

"Just a little one, till I fall asleep," Faith added with a very sleepy tone to her voice before she yawned a bit and dropped her chin to her chest. Wesley barely started a story that he made up on the spot when he heard Faith softly snoring. With a slightly cheesy grin on his face he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

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"Gotta say that's a pretty wild story," Nina stated with an amazed look on her face before she took a drink of her beer that Andrew hand gentlemanly ordered for her earlier.

"Told ya you wouldn't believe me," Andrew sulked back with an unhappy frown on his face as he turned away from her smile and stared down at the bar.

"Oh I believe you Andrew, in fact I know that you're telling the truth because we've actually met before," Nina replied with a pensive smirk on her face as she watched Andrew slowly started to raise his head up.

"We have," Andrew exclaimed with a surprised and confused look on his face as he picked his head up to look at Nina.

"Yep, though I think that you were hiding under a table at the time, Angel's entrance scared you good," Nina snapped back with a cocky grin on her face before she drained the rest of the beer from her bottle and grinned back at Andrew.

"You're with him, with Angel, I," Andrew stammered out with a look of total disbelief and fear on his face as he dropped his mostly full bottle of beer on the bar and didn't seem to notice when it fell over and spilled out all over the bar.

"Am going to tell me exactly where Giles and Buffy are hiding Wesley and Faith, and if you lie to me I'll rip your throat out," Nina shot back with her best Dirty Harry scowl and squint as she slammed her bottle of beer back down onto the bar.

"You…you can't," Andrew gasped with a very fearful look on his face as he slid back off of his stool and stepped back away from Nina with one hand protectively on this throat.

"Says who, I am a werewolf you know, I can only fight off my animal nature for so long before I have to let it out, and right now," Nina started to say with a very serious and threatening tone to her voice and glare on her face, while inwardly she was trying her best not to crack up laughing at the absurdity of what she was saying, as Andrew continued to back away from her before he bumped into someone.

"Huh, sorry I…ah," Andrew started to say with a very scared look on his face before he turned around and came face to face with a deadly blue gaze.

"You are weak, but you make a pleasing sound, it has been long since I heard the mournful wail of the damned," Illyria said softly as she cocked her head to one side and first stared at Andrew for a moment before turning her gaze to Nina.

"Illyria, it can't be, you're dead," Nina gasped out in total shock at the sight of her as she slowly slid off of her stool and tried to figure out what to do.

"I am a god, I cannot die," Illyria stated back without a single movement other than blinking her eyes.

"I…I, I don't know where Wesley and Faith are demon, be gone," Andrew started to stammer out softly at first before he grew more confident and took an errant swing at Illyria. Illyria kept staring straight ahead at Nina but easily caught Andrews fist and brought him to his knees as the sounds of bones breaking filled the suddenly silent club.

"What does he mean, where is Wesley," Illyria asked with a very pointed half frown on her face as she flung Andrew to the side and walked up towards Nina, who hesitantly took a step back as she approached.

"I, we don't know, they went missing about a week ago, but if Buffy and Giles don't have them then," Nina stuttered out softly with a nervous and slightly scared look on her face as she was finding it hard to believe and accept that the being standing in front of her had once been Fred.

"I will find out who does," Illyria stated with an almost angry scowl on her face before she tilted her head back up straight and then calmly walked out of the bar.

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Kennedy grumbled to herself the entire way over to The Immortal's office. She parked her motorcycle and slid her helmet off before making her way inside. She nodded her head in greeting to The Immortal's secretary before she opened the door and walked into his office, expecting to see him sitting behind his desk. However upon stepping foot into his office she received a shock.

"What are you doing," Kennedy asked with a sarcastic frown on her face as she glared at the person behind the desk and then turned back to hurriedly shut the door.

"What's it look like I'm doing," The person behind the desk casually remarked and smiled as Kennedy did her best to remain calm.

"What is it this time Mercedes, what's the game," Kennedy grumbled with a nervous and impatient frown on her face as she stared across the desk and the red haired vampiress calmly sitting in The Immortal's chair.

"No game baby, the big guy gave me a job to do and said that I could have whoever I needed to help me, I thought of you," Mercedes replied with a relaxed grin on her face as she sat forward in the chair and lightly shrugged her shoulders.

"You tore me away from Willow for this," Kennedy snapped with an unhappy sneer on her face as she glared across the desk at Mercedes and then started to turn away. Before she knew it Mercedes was standing directly in front of her.

"Okay ya got me, bad call, but come on, we work pretty damn well together, at least we did last night," Mercedes started to say in her usual tone of voice before as she went on her voice became softer and softer as she approached Kennedy, finally pinning her up against The Immortal's desk.

"That can't happen again," Kennedy said with an unsure look of defiance on her face before Mercedes cut in after laying a finger on her lips.

"Your eyes say otherwise babe," Mercedes cooed back softly with a randy glint in her eyes before she leaned in close and slipped her game face on momentarily, enough to nip at Kennedy's neck, before reverting to her human visage and smiling up at the slightly taller slayer.

"No…they don't, I love Willow and she," Kennedy started to continue with a nervously determined expression on her face before she was silenced by a forceful kiss from Mercedes.

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"Nnh…Wes," Faith mumbled softly as she slowly regained consciousness and picked her head up to look around before she remembered the beating that she had taken that day. If she hadn't been a slayer both of her eyes would still be swollen tightly shut. But with things as they were her eyes had healed enough over the course of the afternoon for her to be able to open them, but only barely and with a fair amount of pain. She finally found Wesley apparently sound asleep against the opposite wall of their small cell. He looked worse than she remembered him being and her heart sank as she guessed that the guards had come and taken him to be interrogated while she had been asleep. "Damn," Faith grumbled with a scared and angry scowl on her face as she pushed up off of her cot and then staggered around until she could stand up and cross the cell. "Wes," Faith asked again with a scared look on her face as she knelt down beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Nnh…I," Wesley very weakly mumbled out through bloody lips as Faith hesitantly rolled him over before she heard the sounds of a violent scuffle occurring outside in the corridor.

"What the fuck," Faith spat out with a defeated look on her face as she turned away from Wesley just as the door was flung open to reveal an eerily calm looking Illyria.

END OF CHAPTER 11

P.S.-Kennedy is still straying and should know better, Willow's having trouble with Fred's death, and Andrew's hand is now broken thanks to Illyria. The fun is just beginning. Thanks to everyone for reviewing.


	10. Plenty Of Time

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note:**

**Jess-yeah it is a bad way to end a chapter, this chapter doesn't start out much better…but ya gotta love them cliffhangers**

**J-Yeah The Immortal loves to appear to be the good guy, Illyria's on the warpath as she's not sure what's going on, and the only person that she'd believe to tell her what's going on isn't in any shape to right now**

**Tamara-Andrew was just being himself and got scared, he didn't know that he was being watched **

**CHAPTER 10-PLENTY OF TIME**

She forced her eyes to open and fought back the urge to vomit. Through the tears and the blood she could just barely make out Wesley's frame lying next to her. After having tortured them for several hours they had been thrown into a cell in the bottom of a dungeon that rather than being cold was often stiflingly hot. That had all been a week ago, as each day the guards would come and take one of them out of the cell and up to the interrogation room. Whoever was chosen for that day would come back looking worse than when they had left, cuts that had only just begun to heal were violently torn open again and made that much more painful.

They had just brought Wesley back in about an hour earlier and despite her not wanting to cause him any more pain she was forced to remove his clothes, being thankful that he had remembered to wear boxers. During the day the two would strip down to their underwear due to the heat. At night they would painfully pull their clothes back on to keep warm as at times the temperature got cold enough for them to see their breath. Over the course of the week Faith had held up better to the torture because every night her body would begin to heal itself. Wesley, on the other hand, was not so lucky. At first he had held up well against the torture. But as the days wore on Faith could see his strength ebbing away. Because of that by the middle of the week she had done all that she could to make sure that the guards would pick her instead of Wesley.

"Nnh…Faith," Wesley softly mumbled out, almost delirious, as he coughed up a little bit of blood and winced in pain as she pulled his shirt off.

"I'm here Wes, it's just me, you're safe now," Faith said back softly with a hopefully soothing tone of voice as she delicately brushed some dirt off of his face.

"I didn't…I didn't tell them," Wesley mumbled out weakly as he tried in vain to shake his head and remain defiant.

"I know you didn't, you're to strong for them," Faith said back with a nervous hitch in her voice as she tried to console him to the best of her abilities.

"Have to go, have to help Angel," Wesley choked out softly with a very painful wince before the effects of the round of torture caught up with him and he passed out.

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"Would you sit down for a minute, please," Nina stated with a nervous and scared look on her face as she grabbed Angel's arm and stopped him from pacing back and forth. After Wesley and Faith had not come back from the pickup Angel had gone out the moment that the sun had gone down and discovered what had happened. For the entire week since he, Nina, and Spike had been scouring the city, desperately trying to find out any little piece of information that could help them locate Wesley and Faith. Spike had gone and talked to Andrew again, this time when the former nerd turned new watcher had gone out to a club with some lady friends. Spike had cornered him in the bathroom and roughed him up a bit before Andrew had squealed and admitted that he had gotten scared and hadn't been able to get the book. But he had sworn on his collection of action figures that he didn't know what happened to Wesley and Faith. Begrudgingly Spike had to admit that he was telling the truth and leave him be, but not before making him promise to not say a word to Buffy or Giles.

"I can't sit down Nina, they're out there somewhere," Angel snapped back with a furious and almost seething scowl on his face as his level of frustration and anxiety was growing by the day.

"You're right, but you won't do them any good if you wear yourself out with this guilt trip, it's not your fault Angel," Nina shot back with a very serious look on her face as she refused to let go of Angel's arm and made him face her.

"You should listen to her, she's got a point," Spike chimed in with a calm and almost bored expression on his face as he walked into the room, popping open a cold beer as he walked.

"Stay out of this Spike," Angel snapped back with an overwhelmed and frustrated scowl on his face before Nina shook him hard.

"Stop it Angel, stop it right now, he's just trying to help you," Nina growled with an angry and fed up expression on her face as she squeezed Angel's arm as hard as she could while staring him straight in the eye.

"So you're on his side now," Angel mumbled out softly with an embarrassed look on his face as he looked all around, refusing to meet Nina's gaze.

"No, it's just that you've spent the last two days in this room, moping about everything under the sun, you said yourself that no one's going to help us out on this one so we're going to have to do everything ourselves, which is why I'm going to talk to Andrew tonight," Nina continued with a very serious look on her face as she shook Angel a bit to make him listen to her.

"Hold on there, what good's that going to do," Spike asked with a surprised and confused look on his face as he hurriedly swallowed a large sip of the beer.

"He doesn't know me, maybe I can get something out of him about what happened to Wesley and Faith," Nina answered with a subtly sly smile on her face as she turned her head and looked over at Spike.

"But he was there when we crashed the party, he'll recognize you," Angel stated with an unconvinced and concerned frown on his face as now he looked straight down at her.

"No he won't, he was to busy trying not to pee his pants during our attack, and besides I don't think that he gave me much thought if he even saw me, he was to busy cowering," Nina replied as she shook her head and smiled up at Angel as Spike mulled it over in his head.

"Could work, you and I are instantly recognizable to any of the Scooby gang, she might learn something," Spike said with a honest tone to his voice as Angel started to growl back at him but stopped when he noticed that Spike wasn't trying to make a joke of any kind and was truly trying to be helpful.

"I still don't know, it could be to dangerous for you," Angel started to say with a confused look on his face as he tried to regain control of the situation.

"Nothing good is free right, I knew that this wasn't going to be a picnic when I didn't go with my sister and niece Angel, I'm in this all the way, so it doesn't really matter if you like it or not I'm doing it, I just thought that you should know," Nina replied with a confidant and calm expression on her face before she pulled Angel down far enough for her to be able to give him a quick kiss and then she walked out of the room.

"Once again, a petite blonde has the might Angelus by the shorthairs, truly pitiful," Spike joked with an overly sly grin on his face before he shook his head and began to chug the beer, seemingly caring less about the hellacious glare that Angel sent his way.

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"What am I supposed to tell their parents Will, sorry ain't going to cut it," Buffy asked with a very somber pout on her face as she wiped away a tear.

"I don't know, I'm still in shock, I don't understand what happened," Willow replied with an unsure frown on her face before she pulled Buffy into a short comforting hug.

"I thought you said that Fred was nice, that she wouldn't hurt a flea," Dawn asked with a scared look on her face as she tried not to stare at the place on the floor where the new slayers bodies had been.

"That was not Fred, it's name was Illyria," Giles replied with a grave scowl on his face as he awkwardly slipped his glasses off and then wiped them off with a white handkerchief from his pocket.

"That's right, she said that she was Illyria right before she jumped through the window and ran away," Buffy added with a confused and scared look on her face as she and Willow broke the hug.

"So who's Illyria," Dawn asked with a confused and slightly annoyed frown on her face as she turned to Giles.

"A being that should have stayed where she was, dead and buried in the deeper well," Roger replied with a frustrated and anxious expression on his face as he walked into the room and slid his hands into his pockets.

"That doesn't make any sense, if she…it was dead then how did she kill the new slayers," Buffy asked with a confused look on her face as she turned to Roger and laid her hands on her hips.

"Quite the forceful one eh, well I wish that I could be the one to explain all of this to you but council business takes me elsewhere, I just came in to tell Rupert and then leave, he can tell you what you need to know," Roger replied without missing a beat as he calmly answered Buffy, nodded to Giles, and then walked out of the room.

"Well," Dawn quipped with a curious expression on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned an inquisitive eye towards Giles.

"Yes well…Illyria, one of a race of demons that existed centuries ago, before mankind, before the dinosaurs, even before vampires and the other demons, Illyria existed in a time where it was only her kind and their armies, they could travel from one dimension to another and were insanely powerful, and insanely evil," Giles answered with an uncomfortable look on his face as he put his glasses back on and then tried to look innocent, it didn't work.

"Did Wesley's father tell you that or," Willow started to say with an odd frown on her face before Giles interrupted.

"No, I first heard the name several weeks ago shortly after receiving a telephone call from Angel," Giles interjected with a grim and increasingly guilty look on his face as he slid his hands into his pockets and awaited the coming outburst.

"What, Angel called…you never said anything about Angel calling," Buffy exclaimed with a surprised and confused look on her face as she walked up to Giles and glared up at him.

"Because at the time I thought that it was merely a ploy of some type, an attempt to get us to go to LA, in retrospect I see that my assessment was wrong," Giles answered with an uncomfortable and unhappy frown on his face as he tried not to get Buffy to angry.

"What exactly did Angel say Giles," Willow asked with a forced look of calm on her face as she laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder to try and keep her from losing her cool.

"He said that a foreign organism had infected one of his team…Fred, and unless something happened her prognosis wasn't good, it appears that he and his associates at Wolfram and Hart were unable to save her," Giles replied with a regretful look in his eyes as he pulled his hands out of his pockets while walking past Buffy and Willow and to the broken out window.

"Ya think," Dawn grumbled with an unhappy pout on her face as she glared across the room at Giles' back before she turned towards Buffy as she spoke.

"Did he ask for me directly or," Buffy started to ask with a nervous and slightly angry scowl on her face before Giles half turned around and answered her.

"No, he asked for Willow's help, he said that the organism was magical in nature and if anyone had the knowledge or power to save Fred it was her, I told him that you were unavailable and then put him on hold…repeatedly, by the time that you walked in he had hung up, he didn't call again," Giles replied with a sincere look of regret and embarrassment on his face as he looked briefly at Buffy at first and then shifted his gaze back over her shoulder to Willow, who looked disappointed for not having gotten the call.

"Well it looks like you were wrong Giles, Angel needed our help and we let him down, he called us for help even after Andrew told him that I didn't trust him anymore, we failed him…we were wrong, makes me wonder what else we've been wrong about," Buffy said back with a slightly humiliated and guilt stricken look on her face as she walked out of the room and out onto the balcony.

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"Wake up Wes, time to eat," Faith said with a scared look on her face as she cautiously shook Wesley awake.

"What," Wesley mumbled out softly with a painful wince thrown in as Faith helped him to sit up before she went over and brought the plates of food over to where he was sitting.

"Breakfast…or is supper, pretty hard to tell anymore," Faith replied with a scared laugh as she sat down beside him while her stomach growled mightily, though none of the foods on her plate looked very appealing.

"It's dinner, it's to hot in here to be breakfast," Wesley said back with a weak smile on his face before he picked a grape up off of his plate and popped it into his mouth, thankful that it had some taste to it.

"You still with me…Wes," Faith started to ask with a concerned look on her face before Wesley momentarily almost passed out.

"Nnh yeah, I'm still here, bloody pitiful excuse for a prisoner, here I am looking a frightful mess, can't keep up with you though," Wesley replied through the pain and fog in his head before he pushed his shoulders further up the wall and popped another grape into his mouth.

"Just call me Prometheus," Faith joked with a sly grin on her face before the grin turned into a genuine smile of embarrassment.

"What," Wesley asked with a confused and amazed look on his face as he studied Faith's reaction through his one good eye as the other had swelled shut and stayed that way.

"Prometheus, you know the titan that stole fire from the gods and gave it to man," Faith replied with a light hearted laugh before she reached over and took one of Wesley's grapes and then bit off half of it. She silently sat there, chewing on part of the grape and watching him, as he seemed to mull over his words for a moment.

"I know who he is, I just didn't know that you knew who he was," Wesley said back with a pleasantly surprised look on his face before coughing a bit.

"Yeah well, I had a lot of time to kill on the boat ride over here, and what with Angel and Nina not leaving each others side for more than five minutes the whole time and Spike hording all of his cigarettes I had to do something, so I started reading," Faith said softly with her usual confidant and proud tone of voice as she shrugged her shoulders and then popped the rest of the grape into her mouth.

"I'm glad that you took the time to further your education, you didn't seem to give it much though while in Sunnydale, and then once you were in LA you…," Wesley started to say with a proud smile on his face before he cast his gaze down towards the ground as he found it hard to continue.

"Before I tortured you, that what you were going to say," Faith said with a suddenly guilty and upset frown on her face as she shrank away from Wesley a bit and took a big bite of her small piece of bread.

"Yes, I wasn't sure that you would want to talk about it…given our current run of luck," Wesley replied with a nervous look on his face as he looked up at Faith and was relieved to see that she had remained calm.

"No problem here, I didn't want to bring it up because I thought that it'd upset you to much, after what I did to you in LA I thought," Faith started to say with a steadily increasing look of guilt and self loathing on her face before Wesley reached out and laid a hand on her knee, even though the action sent lighting bolts of pain through his arm.

"That I hated you, that I never wanted to see you again unless it was behind bars…I have to admit that when Angel confronted you in the alley I was ready to kill you, I even went so far as to take a knife from the apartment," Wesley interjected with a nervous tone to his voice as he got Faith to look him in the eye as he spoke. He stopped speaking briefly as he saw the look of surprise on her face at his revelation that he had brought a knife down with him that night. "I was going to get my revenge on you right then and there in that alley, but then everything changed, I dropped the knife and walked away, and if we're talking about who did what to whom then I should be apologizing as much if not more than you, I should have been a better watcher, a better friend, I was so much of a prick that I didn't," Wesley added with an honest tone of voice as he held his plate still with his other hand while at the end giving Faith's knee an awkward squeeze.

"No…it was all my fault, I was so angry and confused that I didn't know what was going on, no wait, I did know, I knew exactly what I was doing and loved every minute of it, I did, I really did," Faith said back with a forced look of toughness on her face and tone to her voice before at the end her voice began to quiver ever so slightly.

"No you didn't, sure you got off on the power trip, but inside of you somewhere you knew what you were doing was wrong, just like when you killed the man that worked for the Mayor back in Sunnydale, like it or not you're a good and honest person at heart, it's just that you've been hurt badly so many times that you protect yourself from the world at all costs, you never let anyone in for fear of being hurt, besides if you were truly a monster then you wouldn't have felt bad about torturing me, you're not a horrible woman Faith, despite what you might think about yourself you're not, you're a young and beautiful woman with her whole life ahead of her," Wesley replied with a clear and honest look in his eyes as he looked straight at Faith, his tone of voice and words making her instantly uncomfortable, but in a good way. When he said the word beautiful she cocked an eyebrow and felt her heart skip a beat at the realization of what he had said. She at first thought that she had heard him wrong, but the look in his eye proved her wrong.

"They must have hit you pretty hard in there, must have knocked something loose," Faith joked softly, in a clear attempt to break the tension in the moment, before she took another grape from off of Wesley's plate.

"Maybe, but I think that you beat them to it back in LA, you're the reason that I'm who I am today, you unleashed the real me," Wesley joked with a cheesy grin on his face as he looked away from Faith and pulled his hand back off of her knee before he used it to pick up three grapes and then pop them all into his mouth at the same time.

"No, I'm the reason that you're here right now, I should have been able to sense them coming, we shouldn't be here," Faith grumbled back with an unhappy pout on her face before she angrily stuffed the rest of her bread into her mouth.

"I don't blame you for this Faith, anymore than you should be blaming me, I'm as much at fault here as you, we were both taken by surprise, but now that leaves us with plenty of free time to talk," Wesley stated back in reply with a very clear and serious look on his face as he finished chewing the grapes.

"About what," Faith asked with a fake not interested look on her face as she scooted over and sat down right beside him, copying exactly how he was sitting.

"Well I never did catch your last name," Wesley replied with a crooked smile on his face as he lightly bumped Faith with his elbow before she couldn't help but half smile. She took in a deep breath before beginning a conversation that wouldn't end until several hours later when both fell asleep

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She threw the covers off and got up out of bed. She walked across the room and stared at the streets below. She knew that she shouldn't be where she was, doing what she was doing. But she couldn't help herself. She knew that her love was busy with one council matter or another but Willow had been so busy recently that she hadn't had much time for a personal life. They hadn't been in Rome long before the two had met. They met at one of The Immortal's parties. She had almost not gone after Willow had gotten sick. But true to her nature the redhead had told her girlfriend to go. Their gazes had met across the dance floor and after some awkward moments the two had struck up a conversation, and soon a friendship. She had done her best to keep anyone from noticing their connection. Willow had come the closest but she had been stymied each and every time by a kiss or a special night out.

Kennedy sighed softly as she turned and looked back to the bed and the redhead and the blonde softly snoring away in the middle of the day. The blonde was the woman that she had met at the party, a low level lawyer on The Immortals staff. The redhead was a vampire that had worked for The Immortal for several years, though Kennedy still wasn't completely sure exactly what her job was. The night before had started out innocent enough, just a long night helping The Immortal with his latest legal problem before the vampiress had suggested that they raid the wet bar. Hours later they wound up in bed, to wrapped up in each other to hear the calls about Illyria's attack. If she had to tell the truth she would have admitted that what she was doing was wrong but ever since they had all arrived in Europe she had felt that she and Willow were drifting apart. After a heated argument one night The Immortal had offered to help and smooth things over by letting her do some legwork for him. That legwork was how Kennedy had first come into contact with the two beauties in the bed behind her.

She was about to return to the bed, but only after getting something for her hangover, when her cell phone rang. It was Giles calling her to say that something very bad had happened and that she was needed. She lied and said that she had eaten some bad food the night before and been busy all day running around Rome for The Immortal. But in the end she said that she'd be right there and hung up. She left a note on the dresser before pulling her clothes back on and heading out of the suite.

END OF CHAPTER 10

Note: I put Kennedy's age at almost or right at seventeen or possibly seventeen and a half given that the ages of those first few potentials wasn't really given. There was that joke about them being fifteen when they met Clem in the demon bar but I doubt that they were all exactly fifteen, more like that they were all somewhere in between fifteen and sixteen with Kennedy being closer to sixteen, and it's been about a year since the destruction of Sunnydale so to me Kennedy is close to legally being an adult, though it doesn't excuse her actions. Anybody have any ideas for the blonde lawyer and redheaded vampire that Kennedy is with, names wise.


	11. Coffee And Bludgeoning

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Note:**

**Jess- The mystery lady is revealed fully in this chapter, for better or worse**

**Tamara-Yeah Roger needs to rethink a few things doesn't he**

**J-Actually Spike timed the explosions just right to get the guards and such, he tried not to kill any of the new slayers, and then Sunnydale gang and Roger were the only council members there. Yeah Willow knew that something was off about the attack and she'll keep her head about her, yeah the Spike and Nina bonding scene was fun to write and to me was needed. Nina will get some more characterization as time goes by and her role in this story won't be pushed aside.**

**Angel Of Darkness231-Illyria is back and will make some noise of her own soon enough. Spike/Buffy is my favorite ship and will happen, though not immediately and not like everyone thinks, no kissing on first sight kind of thing. Wes/Faith are the fun couple in this story, the fun couple to write and they actually fit very well together imho.**

**CHAPTER 9-COFFEE AND BLUDGEONING **

Angel chuckled softly to himself as he walked into the room and saw Wesley, having fallen asleep in mid translation, using the ancient tome as a pillow. His smile widened a bit as he saw Faith in a similar position on the other side of the table. Almost immediately Faith roused from her slumber and lifted her head just enough to stare at him with a confused look on her face. Angel replied by smiling softly and presenting one of the cups of coffee that Nina had just given him. The aroma of the coffee seemed to do the trick as Faith rose from her seat, took the cup of coffee, and then left the room. She mumbled something about being woken up to early as she went. Angel shook off her comments with a smile before he leant over Wesley just right so that he could waft the cup of coffee close to his nose, rousing him finally from his slumber.

"Nnh…Faith," Wesley mumbled out softly with a very tired expression on his face as he slowly blinked his eyes until they fully adjusted to the light.

"She just left, here…I thought you might need a little pick me up this early in the morning," Angel answered with a soft smile on his face as he first nodded his head towards the doorway that Faith had just left through before he handed Wesley the cup of coffee.

"Thank you, I'm sorry but I haven't found out what that tattoo means yet, this book is a riddle on top of a conundrum, it's like a knock-knock joke with no answer," Wesley replied softly with a tired look on his face in between a couple of sips from the cup of coffee.

"Do you think that this book was meant to slow us down, lead us on a wild goose chase of sorts," Angel asked with a touch of concern in his voice as he sat down slowly in the seat that Faith had vacated.

"No, that much I am sure of, this book does have the answers that we seek however to fully translate it I would need another of the books in the collection," Wesley replied with an awkward look on his face as he looked down at the book briefly before raising his gaze up to Angel's face.

"You mean the collection that we stole it from, as in we have to go back to the scene of the crime and steal another book," Angel asked with a frustrated expression of disbelief on his face as he couldn't help but lean forward on the table with his elbows and run his hands through his hair.

"I'm afraid so, they're a pair, like the three books that helped up leave Pylea, you can't fully read one without the other, ingenious really," Wesley said back with a small smirk on his face as he couldn't help but be impressed by the work of the author of the books.

"I hate my life," Angel mumbled softly with a very sarcastic and unhappy pout on his face before he crossed his arms on the table and then dropped his head down onto them.

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"You and Wesley seem to be getting along," Nina said with a sly smirk on her face as she pulled her hair back and up into a loose ponytail as Faith walked into the room, still sipping from her cup of coffee.

"What's that supposed to mean," Faith asked with an anxious scowl on her face as she was unsure of exactly where Nina was going with the statement.

"Ever since we first met you've been hovering over him like a mother hen," Nina started to say with a curious smile on her face as she brushed some lint off of her jeans before being interrupted by Faith.

"As opposed to torturing him again," Faith mumbled very softly with a dejected and self-loathing expression on her face, softly enough that Nina didn't quite catch it.

"What was that," Nina asked with a confused look on her face as she took out a small bottle of hand lotion out of the pocket of her coat and popped the top.

"Huh, oh nothing, was there something specific that you wanted to know or is this inquisition just for fun," Faith replied with a bit of a defensive look on her face at first before she calmed herself down and tried to smirk at the end.

"This isn't an inquisition, we're not in the Middle Ages, I just wanted to know if you and Wesley were…an item," Nina replied at first with a bit of an upset frown on her face before she couldn't help but smile as she asked her question. Almost immediately Faith very nearly spit out the mouthful of coffee that she had. As it was she swallowed a little to quickly and ended up nearly choking on the mouthful.

"What…me and Wes, we're not like that," Faith sputtered out with a look of shock and disbelief on her face as she finally managed to stop coughing and collect herself.

"Oh sorry, it's just that you two looked to be getting along pretty well and you were pretty insistent on figuring out what's wrong with him I just thought," Nina replied with an apologetic expression on her face as she hoped that Faith wasn't to mad with her.

"He's been hurt to many times okay, I was just trying to not let history repeat itself," Faith said back with a somber frown on her face as she finished off her cup of coffee and then flung it into the nearest heap of trash.

"Speaking of history, what can you tell me about Buffy, I didn't get a good look at her when we attacked and I can't ask Spike about her," Nina said softly with a curious but nervous look on her face as she switched gears and went on to other things.

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Willow almost couldn't believe it when she had received the call. She had only met Fred a few months earlier in LA and couldn't think of a reason that she would have been in the hospital. A part of her was glad to hear that she had survived whatever had happened in LA but meanwhile another part of her wondered if Fred's arrival was merely a diversion. When she entered the room she found Fred asleep and looking very peaceful. Her aura seemed to be a bit odd but Willow didn't dwell on it because Roger had ushered her quickly from the room and shut the door behind him. The door stayed shut for nearly an hour before it opened again and Roger walked out, muttering something about needing to make some calls.

"What's he in such a big rush for," Dawn asked softly with a confused look on her face as she watched Roger leave the hotel lobby and get into a waiting cab.

"Got me, it's not like she's going anywhere," Rhona replied with a bored stiff shrug of her shoulders as she passed by the room that Fred had been put in. Fred hadn't woken up since the witches had found her.

"That doesn't matter right now, we just got a tip about that nest of vampires that we've been tracking, it's been located, time to go to work," Kennedy announced with a very energized and serious look on her face as she walked into the hallway and looked around at the assembled slayers.

"What about Fred," Dawn asked with a tired look on her face as she looked back towards the door to Fred's room.

"We'll leave some of the newest slayers to watch her, she hasn't woken up yet so they should be able to handle it, come on let's go," Kennedy replied with an impatient frown on her face as she seemed unhappy to be hindered by having to have someone keep an eye on Fred.

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"Okay, so basically what you're saying is that Wes and I have to go back and get another book, all without anyone noticing us," Faith asked with an impatient frown on her face as she picked at her meager meal.

"Pretty much, Wesley can't fully decipher the first book that we stole without it," Angel asked with a grim expression on his face as he casually shrugged his shoulders and then took a sip of the cup of blood that Nina had stolen from a butcher a few blocks away.

"Should we have known this when we stole the first bloody book," Spike asked with an unhappy scowl on his face as he looked up from solemnly breaking apart his Styrofoam cup.

"No, there was no way for any of us to know that we would need this second book to fully decode the first one," Wesley replied with a tired look on his face as he first looked over at Spike before turning his gaze instead to watching Faith push a bean around her plate with her fork.

"But isn't that place going to be crawling with security, how do you expect them to be able to even get close to it without being surrounded by like a thousand cops," Nina asked with a nervous and confused look on her face as she stopped sipping her tea and turned to Angel.

"Simple pet, I'm going to pay a little visit to our favorite new watcher and tell him to get it for us, Wesley and Faith here just have to wait out back for him to deliver it to them," Spike answered with a sly but nervous smirk on his face before he turned his cup around in his hands just a bit and took another sip.

"Just like that, and you actually expect him to keep you being alive a secret and not tell B or anyone else," Faith added with a skeptical look on her face as she laid her fork down and looked up from her plate.

"He's kept my being alive again secret since he showed up in LA a few months back, besides I'm going to sweeten the deal a bit, tickets to an early screening of some sci-fi movie, one of the flunkies at Wolfram and Hart was handing them out awhile back, I just stuffed them in my pocket and forgot about them, I found them again when I was looking for a cigarette," Spike replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders as he hoped that what he was saying would turn out to be true and that the plan would work.

"You mean you actually expect that plan to work," Nina asked with a confused and anxious expression on her face as she shook her head and glanced up at Angel.

"Maybe, maybe not, right now it's all that we got, Spike will go talk to Andrew while the rest of us get moving, after Wesley and Faith get the book we're leaving, we should be out of Rome by morning, if we stay here then they'll eventually find us," Angel replied with a nervous and forced look of confidence on his face as he tried his best to sound and appear positive and upbeat about the chances of the plan working.

"We're screwed," Faith grumbled sadly with an unhappy pout on her face before she turned her gaze to Wesley and met his tired gaze.

"Not necessarily, if Andrew does his job then this will all soon be over, and without anymore bloodshed," Wesley countered with a weary look in his eyes as he shook his head slightly and then took a large drink of his beer.

"Then what though, Wesley fully translates the book, we find the big bad guy and take him out, even if we do all of that we'll just go right back to where we were after LA, no better off," Nina wondered aloud with a very concerned and somewhat scared look on her face as she stood up and looked earnestly to Angel.

"Hopefully not Nina, hopefully when all is said and done we'll be free of anyone trying to kill us," Angel replied with a very serious look on his face as he shook his head and then finished off the rest of the blood.

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They arrived back at the hotel just before sundown, never noticing Spike slipping away out the back door, using the shadows to get around. The vampire nest had been teeming with vampires, none of whom were particularly happy with being roused in the middle of the afternoon. Buffy had led the charge with several of the elder new slayers taking flanking positions on either side of her. Willow and Xander had brought up the rear with Giles and Dawn keeping watch a block away with a few of the newer slayers with them to serve as emergency support. Dawn had grumbled several times that she felt like Buffy and everyone else were still treating her as a child. Giles had done his best to pacify her anger on the subject and in the end he succeeded, but only by promising to let her stay out an extra couple of hours some night soon.

The plan had worked flawlessly and as they headed back to the hotel nothing was amiss. Things changed when they got up to the floor that they had rented out for the new slayers. The first sign of trouble was when the doors first opened and they found the body of one of the newest slayers lying facedown on the floor in the middle of the hallway. Buffy had immediately gone into combat mode and told Xander and Giles to stay with the new slayers while she and the older new slayers searched the rooms for what they thought was an intruder.

"What's going on," Vi asked softly with a very scared look on her face as she crept out of the elevator and turned to Rhona.

"Beats me, some big bad decided to mess with us," Rhona replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she looked fully ready for combat.

"We have to find Fred first," Willow interrupted with a very serious and grim expression on her face as she pushed her way in between the two and glared at them both.

"Willow's right, you two go down that hallway, Kennedy you and Willow go left, I'll take point," Buffy stated in a harsh whisper as she drew the stake the she had used in the attack on the vampires nest and crept forward as the others went their way. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Buffy as she crept down the hallway, aside of course from the trio of bodies that lay haphazardly all around with expressions of pure horror on their faces. She would find out later that the other two teams that were creeping through the hallways found much the same in their search. The three groups finally came back together outside of Fred's room. Vi was in tears and looking like she could go no further while Rhona kept her composure but looked ready to throw up if given half the chance. Kennedy and Willow had the same look on their faces, sadness at the loss of life but grim determination to get the job done.

"Rhona, stay here with Vi," Willow said softly with a concerned look on her face as she laid a hand on Vi's shoulder to try and do a little to calm the younger girls trembling. Unlike her norm Rhona stayed silent and only nodded her head back in reply.

"Okay, stay ready and follow me," Buffy started to say with a very serious look on her face before she reached up, turned the doorknob, and opened the door, allowing Kennedy and Willow to almost half stumble in after her.

"F…Fred," Willow stammered out with a look of total disbelief on her face as she took a stagger step back at the sight, right into Giles who had sent Xander and the rest of the girls back in the elevator to the lobby. Lying on the floor around Fred, were four of the newest slayers, their necks all broken. Initially Fred had her back to them but just as Buffy started to speak up she turned around, her face the perfect image of calm and serenity.

"There is no Fred…only Illyria," Illyria said softly at first with an almost innocent look on her face before her countenance changed as her look gave way to the ancient demon and soon blue eyes stared back at Willow and those assembled.

"My God," Giles muttered softly under his breath with a look of great astonishment on his face as he couldn't believe what he was seeing as Illyria cocked her head to one side and studied them briefly.

"They tried to restrain me, their mistake," Illyria stated with a very matter of fact tone of voice before she turned, ran straight forward and crashed through the plate glass window. She didn't stop running until she got to the edge of the balcony. Without a care in the world she did a front flip off of the balcony and descended to the street below, taking off the second that her feet hit the pavement.

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"I hope Spike convinced that little weasel to help us, otherwise we could be in trouble," Faith grumbled with an unhappy and nervous frown on her face as she and Wesley started to make their way back towards the back of the building that they had been to earlier.

"Well it's a little to late for second guessing now, we're already committed to this plan and can't back out now, we either sink or swim," Wesley replied with a deep breath and nervous smirk on his face as he followed closely behind Faith, doing his best not to look conspicuous.

"Maybe, all I know is that something about this just ain't right, it all seems way to easy," Faith said back with a nervous look on her face as they rounded a corner and the back of the large building came into view.

"You're right, this does all seem a bit," Wesley started to agree with a concerned look on his face before he felt the prick of a dart in the side of his neck. He lost consciousness almost instantly and fell to the ground.

"Wesley," Faith screamed out in shock and alarm as she turned just in time to see him fall before she too was felled by a dart to the neck, falling directly on top of Wesley as her world went black. When she awoke she found herself firmly tied to a chair in a small room without much light in it. The chair was the only piece of furniture in the room except for a small table that lay in front of a large window that showed another similar room with another solitary chair and table. All in all the rooms resembled a police interrogation area, complete with a two-way mirror and intercom system. As she sluggishly lifted her head she found that one of her eyes was swollen shut and she could tell that she bore many bruises and cuts, mostly because of how much every part of her body hurt. With her one good eye she looked through the window and saw a sight that nearly stopped her heart dead. Bound to the chair in the other room was Wesley, half awake and being worked over by two rather large vampires that Faith remembered having worked for The Immortal.

"A beautiful sight isn't it, so much pain and suffering inflicted and yet he does not scream," The Immortal joked with a sly look of pride on his face as he appeared out of the shadows beside Faith, clothed in coveralls that were stained red with blood.

"W…where am I," Faith asked softly, still a bit groggy as she tried to get her vision to clear while keeping track of where The Immortal was in the room.

"It's not important because you'll never leave, both you and your boyfriend over there will die here, after I get what I want out of you that is," The Immortal said back with a supremely confidant look on his face as he leaned over and whispered the last part into Faith's right ear while squeezing both of her shoulders. Upon having her shoulders squeezed Faith discovered that her left shoulder was dislocated.

"He's not," Faith mumbled back softly with an upset frown on her face as she tried to fight against her injuries and concentrate on keeping alert.

"Really…ah to bad, the two of you make such a nice looking couple," The Immortal quipped back with a sad pout on his face before he switched into a wide grin and he then backhanded Faith across the back of her head, almost knocking her back out.

"Fuck off," Faith spat out, only slightly surprised when as she spoke she spat out some of her own blood, as she tried to lift her head up and look around.

"You'd like that wouldn't you, yes…I think that you would, however I think that you should know that no one's coming to save you, Rupert and Roger don't even know that I have you, they don't even know that this room and its counterpart over there even exist, I've got them wound so tightly around my little finger that they'll believe anything I tell them, not to mention the lovely Miss Summers, who was so heartbroken upon losing that bastard vampire that she was ripe for the picking," The Immortal added back with an amused and proud smile on his face as he walked around in front of Faith and squatted down so that he could look her straight in her one eye that wasn't swollen shut.

"Andrew," Faith mumbled out as she struggled to stay awake while simultaneously trying to check to see just how tight her bindings were.

"Didn't know that he was being watched, I made sure to have my security detail stay near the book, the poor fool got scared and never came close to even touching the book, but that's all for now, I have a dinner date to catch, I'll be back later…if you won't tell me what I want to know then we'll see how long your friend over there lasts against a hungry werewolf friend of mine," The Immortal stated with a very smug grin on his face as he took a step back away from Faith and unzipped the coveralls to reveal a tuxedo. With a small smile back towards Faith he straightened his tie and then left the room. Faith only barely managed to watch him leave the room before she shifted her gaze back to Wesley, a small salty tear sliding out of her good eye and down her cheek.

END OF CHAPTER 9


	12. Chapter 12

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey, who yes will show up.**

**Author's Note:**

**Jess-Yeah someone finally found them alright, and their experience together will change them and bring them closer**

**RuthQuist-Thanks, Justine is a fine name though I wouldn't want anyone to confuse the lawyer lady with the one that slit Wesley's throat back in LA**

**Tamara-Illyria is only getting started. Nina's new to the business and so far is winging it, going off of some old movies that she's seen and things of that nature**

**J-Kennedy wants to do right for sure, her ambition and lack of patience get her into trouble…repeatedly. Mercedes comes more from a character in Grand Theft Auto Vice City than anywhere else, but the reason for her name will be explained for this story son enough. Nina's fun to write and I'm never quite sure what Illyria is going to say next, she's a hard lady to pin down vocabulary wise. Willow is usually quick to blame herself, even if the others don't, and usually takes a good long time to forgive herself. Kennedy is trying to help her but has her own problems at the moment. As for Andrew it was either break his hand or kill him…let's hope I made the right decision.**

**CHAPTER 12-LOST AND FOUND**

"Would you relax already, you're pacing is giving me a bloody headache," Spike grumbled with an unhappy scowl on his face as he shook his head at Angel standing by the window.

"She should have been back by now Spike, I'm going to look for her," Angel replied softly at first with a very nervous and scared tone to his voice as he continued to pace before he stopped abruptly and turned towards the doorway.

"No you're not, she's fine, she's a big girl and can bloody well take care of herself, she doesn't need the great poofter chasing off into the night after her," Spike grumbled back with an unhappy and uncomfortable scowl on his face as he snapped his head around to glare up and over at Angel.

"She said she'd only be gone for a few hours, sunrise is only a few hours away, if she doesn't come back in the next hour I'm going out looking for her and I don't give a damn what you think," Angel growled back with an antsy expression on his face as he walked to the door and looked out of it before turning back to glare at Spike.

"Your girlfriend will be fine Angel, besides you're going to have to suck it up and trust her sometime, you can't baby her forever, you're not going to lose her like you did Cordelia and Buffy," Spike said back with a solemn but not mocking tone to his voice as he slowly rose and then started to walk over towards Angel.

"I did not lose Bu…," Angel started to hastily growl back with an extremely nervous look in his eyes before both vampires instantly grew silent as they heard one of the doors downstairs being hastily thrown open. Angel was about to signal for Spike to fade back into the shadows and provide cover when Nina's scent wafted over him.

"See mate what'd I tell you, she made it back safe and," Spike began to say with a relaxed grin on his face as he waved Angel off and started to walk back towards the center of the room before Nina burst around the corner and then nearly collapsed into Angel's arms.

"Illyria…she," Nina gasped out with a panicked look on her face as she leaned heavily on Angel and tried to catch her breath.

"She what, Nina Illyria's dead, she died in the alley with Gunn," Angel said with a sad frown on his face as he didn't like to dwell on the lives lost on his behalf.

"N…no, she was there tonight, at the club, she showed up, out of the blue, broke his hand," Nina stammered out through her deep breaths as she held onto Angel tightly while slowly beginning to regain her composure.

"She always did like to make an entrance, coming and going where and when she pleased, to bad about Andrew though, now he'll really be lonely," Spike said softly back at first with an oddly nostalgic smirk on his face before his countenance changed to a very randy grin as the focus of his words switched to Andrew.

"What…you're sick Spike, you know that right," Nina spat out with a look of some disgust and disbelief on her face as she lightly glared at Spike before he reacted.

"Just saying what everyone's thinking pet, no one's quite sure which team the little nerd's truly playing for, so let's not rule anything out just yet," Spike replied with a slightly awkward shrug of his shoulders as he looked almost offended at Nina's comment before the cocky smirk reappeared on his face.

"Can we get back to Illyria now, Nina…what happened, tell me everything," Angel said with a disgruntled and impatient scowl on his face before he guided Nina over to one of the old chairs and sat her down. Angel and Spike listened to every word that Nina spoke for the next fifteen minutes before the three rushed off into the night, intent on finding their friends before the sun rose in the sky, or die trying.

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"You really should just dump her and move in with me, we'd have so much fun," Mercedes said softly with only a hint of mockery and arrogance in her voice as she kicked open and old door before Kennedy rolled her eyes.

"I'm not leaving Willow, last night should never have happened," Kennedy growled back with an unhappy scowl on her face as she stormed past Mercedes and into the abandoned building.

"But you enjoyed it didn't you, doesn't matter what you say, my senses don't lie, you experienced a high with me and Kristine that you hadn't felt in a long time," Mercedes slyly said back with a smug grin on her face as she licked her lips and cocked her head to one side while staring long and hard at Kennedy's butt as she bent over to look at something.

"You know nothing about me, I kill your kind…never forget that" Kennedy snapped back sharply with an angry look of guilt on her face as she shot up and spun around to glare devilishly back at Mercedes.

"How could I, you've only reminded me about it every five minutes since we've met that you're the fucking slayer…blah, blah, blah," Mercedes groaned back with a shrug of her shoulders and shake of her head, acting as if Kennedy's words hadn't affected her in the least, as she walked calmly by a still angry slayer and further into the building.

"I have not, and for the record you are nothing like," Kennedy started to growl back with an angry sneer on her face as she rushed after Mercedes, grabbed her collar, spun her around and then grabbed her throat tightly and pulled the vampiress close. The two were so close their noses were almost touching. "You are nothing like," Kennedy began to continue with a deadly serious look on her face before Mercedes switched from offense to defense and used one hand to reach around and pull Kennedy into a smoldering kiss while using the other to deftly reach up and give Kennedy's breasts a nice hard squeeze. It didn't take either long before the reason they were out searching in the night was forgotten and their only interest was in the pleasuring of the other.

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"We're never going to find them, they could be anywhere," Nina groaned with an unhappy and disappointed frown on her face as she stopped running and slumped back up against the doorframe in an old warehouse.

"She's right you know, how are we supposed to," Spike began to add with an impatient pout on his face before a familiar scent caught his attention. Leaving Nina to try to catch her breath in peace and quiet across the room Spike carefully weaved his way around the weakened floorboards until he came to a broken out window. He looked around for several moments before the strong scent of lust caught his attention. It didn't take long for him to hone in on the source of the scent. When he did so a snarl curled his lip and his hands slowly closed into fists.

"What is it," Angel asked suddenly with a concerned and serious look on his face after he had noticed Spike's sudden change of demeanor.

"That bloody bitch," Spike spat out with a look of disgust and hatred on his face as he unclenched his hands only long enough to look away from what was causing his anger before clenching them tightly back into fists. He stayed silent for several more moments as Angel again asked him what was going on. When he didn't answer Angel guided Nina across the floor and over to the window. Nina stared out of it in confusion and trepidation while it only took Angel a few short moments to zero in on what had so entrapped Spike's attention.

"Nothing we haven't seen before Spike, why the," Angel started to ask with a look of some confusion and let down as he let out a breath that he needn't have taken before Spike snapped his gaze over and answered.

"The vamps an old acquaintance of mine, used to run with her back when Dru and I were still together…more or less, the girl's name is Kennedy, a slayer, one of the first of the potentials that showed up in Sunnydale before the shit hit the fan, took quite a liking to Willow to, they've been together ever since," Spike answered with a very grim scowl on his face, looking like he wanted to rush over there and kill them both, but Angel stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"And that's not Willow that she's with, unfortunate…but not our problem," Angel said softly with an agreeing tone of voice but frustrated look in his eyes before his hand slid off Spike's shoulder and he started to turn away and back to Nina.

"The bloody hell it isn't, that's not right, and that's saying something coming from me," Spike snapped back with a vehemently angry frown on his face as he fully turned away from the window and glared at Angel's back.

"Is it really Spike, for all we know Willow and Kennedy broke up months ago, and if being together makes those two happy…it's not like it would be the first time that a slayer and a vampire have found love, though not like this," Angel started to say with a nervous shrug of his shoulders as he did his best to hide his surprise and suspicion of the couple across the street before Spike once again stepped in.

"She had my back Angel, Red always had a level head when it came to me, she showed a little bit of trust in me, if they're still together I'm not going to let that bitch hurt her anymore than she already has," Spike interjected with a spiteful expression on his face as he turned back to the window and tried his best to hold in his anger.

"Finding Wesley and Faith are our main concern right now Spike, everything else is secondary, including defending a friends feelings, we have to," Angel started to growl back softly with a very determined tone to his voice before he suddenly when silent and sniffed the breeze. Spike opened his mouth to give a retort but stopped when he half turned and noticed Angel sniffing the breeze.

"What is it," Nina asked with a nervous and apprehensive look on her face, as she expected the worst, as she rushed over to Angel and begged him with her eyes to explain.

"Can't you smell it," Angel asked under his breath with a look of surprise and oddly some relief on his face as he hurried over to the window and leaned out of it a bit before taking another sniff.

"All I smell is blood," Nina said softly with a confused look on her face after walking over to the window and repeating Angel's actions. She didn't say anything but when she smelled the blood she felt her stomach growl in hunger and she blanched at the thought of what that could mean.

"It's the werewolf in you, it's drawn to blood," Spike stated with a very explanatory tone to his voice as he continued to scowl but turned his gaze away from Kennedy and Mercedes.

"It's not just any blood, it's Wesley's, I'm sure of it," Angel interrupted with an eerily excited look on his face as he started to walk away from the window and back towards the stairs before Spike interrupted once more.

"How can you be sure," Spike asked with an unconvinced look on his face as he also stepped away from the window and started to follow after his grandsire.

"It's his…trust me Spike, it's his," Angel said with a sudden look of extreme guilt an anguish on his face before he turned around and ran out of the room. Nina and Spike barely had time to share a confused look before they followed after him. They followed the scent of blood for several blocks, under bridges and through darkened tunnels before Angel stopped abruptly and snapped his head to one side, staring off into the shadows.

"What is it," Nina gasped out weakly with an exhausted look on her face as she staggered to a stop beside Angel, being able to keep up with the two vampires only because of her being a werewolf.

"My grief is abated," Illyria said softly with her usual total lack of emotion tone to her voice as she stepped out of the shadows blood, some hers and some not, covering her from head to toe.

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"We have to be missing something Giles, we just have to," Buffy said with a scared and saddened look on her face as she sank down into the most comfortable chair in Giles' office and looked up at him as he poured her a cup of tea.

"I don't see how we could have possibly been prepared for Illyria, as far as anyone knew she died in the fight in Los Angeles, her arrival here in Rome was…unexpected to say the least," Giles replied softly with an anxious smile on his face as he set the tea down on the small table beside Buffy.

"Oh really, was that why Roger didn't seem that surprised to see what she did, it looked to me that he might have even been expecting it, but what do I know," Buffy shot back softly with a fair amount of sarcasm in her voice at the end as she sat up straight in the middle of her statement before flopping back into her chair at the end.

"If the council had known that a threat of Illyria's level was in Rome we…I, would have been informed of it immediately," Giles said back with a confident tone to his voice though his eyes give his apprehension about whether or not he would be told away.

"That's going to be a real comfort to the families of those slayers that she killed, we swore to them that we'd take care of their daughters, they trusted us Giles, they trusted us and we let them down, we took everything from them, and for most of them we can't even tell them how their child actually died, instead we give them some lie in the hopes that it eases their pain while at the same time covering our asses," Buffy groaned back with a very guilt stricken pout on her face as she sunk further into her chair and lowered her chin to her chest, almost looking like she was about to cry.

"Hey guys…have either of you seen Kennedy, she got paged last night and I haven't seen her since, she won't answer her phone and," Willow asked with an impatient and worried look on her face as she ducked into the room.

"I'm sorry Willow but no, I haven't seen Kennedy all day," Giles replied softly with a somber frown on his face as he slowly shook his head.

"Oh…uh, thanks, bye," Willow mumbled back with a fake smile on her face before she turned and sulked out of the room.

"This is…I should go talk to her," Buffy started to say to continue the conversation before her fears about Willow's mood took center stage and she quietly excused herself.

"Off to fight the forces of darkness," Roger asked with a none to thrilled look on his face as he walked in as Buffy walked out, she did not look in his direction.

"Not quite, Willow is worried about her girlfriend Kennedy, she hasn't seen her for several hours and isn't answering her phone, something could be wrong," Giles replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders as he collected Buffy's tea cup and then put it back on the tray.

"Hardly a task for the watchers council, we have far more important matters to discuss," Roger replied with a serious and grim frown on his face as he walked over and then sat down in the chair that Buffy had just been in moments before.

"Such as the fact that the council knew full well about Illyria being in Rome and her capabilities and did not alert me," Giles stated more as a question than a statement as he looked over at his colleague and did his best not to scowl or glare.

"We hadn't yet fully assessed her capabilities, it was unfortunate but not without some gain, our scientists discovered that she is not at full power, we should count ourselves lucky with only a small loss of life," Roger answered with a calm look on his face and tone to his voice as he began to fix himself a cup of tea.

"There shouldn't have been any loss of life Roger, those new slayers shouldn't have been anywhere near her, they didn't have a clue what they were up against," Giles shot back with a grim look of guilt in his eyes as he turned away from Roger and walked back over to his desk.

"You're beginning to sound like my son," Roger said back with an exasperated sigh as he shook his head and finished making his tea.

"Speaking of Wesley, we find out that he's actually not dead and you've barely said three words about him," Giles replied with a nervous and skeptical frown on his face as he walked back around behind his desk and sat down.

"What's there to say, he was a failure when he was a child and he is a failure now, it's always the same with him, no need to worry about him, I'm sure that he's failing something or someone as we speak," Roger answered with a content and very certain tone to his voice as he settled himself into his chair and then began to sip his tea, not looking over and see the unhappy scowl on Giles' face.

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Angel stood at one end of the hallway while Spike stood at the other. Both kept in the shadows and stood watch. They were both fully intent on making sure that no one other than hospital personnel went anywhere near the room where Wesley and Faith were receiving treatment. Wesley had been diagnosed with a multitude of injuries, chief among them being several broken ribs. Faith was better off mostly due to her slayer healing, already some of the bruises were starting to disappear and the worse cuts welts were starting to scab over. Against the doctor's orders Faith had stayed seated sideways on her hospital bed so that she could make sure not to take her eyes off of Wesley. The doctor's reluctantly checked her over for injuries this way before pronouncing her surprisingly fit and that she would be able to be released in a couple of hours. For her part Illyria stood guard at the doorway of the room, refusing treatment for any of her wounds, even though a couple of them looked affected. When a doctor or nurse would approach her she would declare that she was Illyria and did not require the aid of inferior beings. Though if anyone took the time to actually watch her it was clear that her strength was low and that as the sun grew steadily higher in the sky her eyelids were beginning to droop. When she finally passed out sometime around noon Nina was lucky enough to rush a wheelchair up from behind and catch her before she fell to the floor. Only then did Illyria receive any treatment.

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Kennedy didn't say anything as she pulled on her dirty and stinking clothes. The thought of what she had done sickened her, trumped only by the thought of Willow finding out. She ran back to her motorcycle and raced off towards the hotel, leaving a grinning Mercedes to watch her leave from the shadows and sulk that she hadn't stayed and played a bit longer. When she got back to the hotel Kennedy dashed quickly up the stairs and disappeared into the bathroom of the room that she and Willow shared, dumping her clothes in a pile in the middle of the room before stepping into the shower. She had just turned the water on when Willow tried the knob and found the bathroom door locked. She could have used her magic and forced it open but decided not to press the issue, so she simply yelled through the door that she wanted to talk when Kennedy got done with her shower and then sulked off to find Buffy, leaving Kennedy to break down and sob in private.

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Mercedes reluctantly put her clothes back on, relishing in the scents of the area. Grimacing at the sun in the sky she found the first access to the sewers that she could find that wasn't bathed in sunlight and made her way back towards The Immortal's headquarters. She arrived just as lunch was being served.

"Where have you been," Kristine asked with an unhappy frown on her face as she reluctantly handed Mercedes a glass of blood.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Mercedes cooed back with a sly and proud smile on her face before she raised the rim of the glass to her lips and then stopped. She saw that Kristine was about to ask another question and surprised her with a kiss.

"You didn't hurt her did you, she's to important," Kristine asked softly after some anxious moments as she took a step back but showed no outward signs in reaction to the kiss, other than to try and not show how good it had been.

"To your or to the boss, you know what K, sometimes I think you want Kennedy all for yourself," Mercedes joked back with a subtly impatient pout on her face before she took a small sip of her blood and licked the remaining blood off of her lips.

"I don't want her to get hurt, by you or The Immortal, I won't let him…or you, hurt her," Kristine shot back with a very determined look on her face before she couldn't hold the stern look and her expression changed to a much more worried one, prompting Mercedes to grin like the Cheshire cat and walk off to her room to get some sleep.

END OF CHAPTER 12


	13. Oh Balls

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**Author's Note:**

**Tamara: Yep, they're starting to figure out that something isn't quite right, but then the question becomes which one of them will figure it out first**

**Shermi: Thanks, and don't worry I'll keep writing**

**Jess: We have a ways to go with this story and I hope that you'll like the ride**

**CHAPTER 13-OH BALLS…**

"It almost doesn't seem real ya know," Faith mumbled softly across the way from her spot sitting cross-legged on her bed while making sure to keep an eye fixed on Wesley.

"What doesn't," Wesley asked softly, as the drugs that he had been pumped full of to ease the pain were making him more than a bit loopy.

"That we're not stuck in that shithole in the ground, I keep expecting to wake up and be right back there," Faith mumbled back softly with a large yawn before she rubbed her eyes and steeled herself to stay awake, at least until Wesley fell asleep.

"Well we're not, happy times are here again eh," Wesley mumbled back with a slightly goofy smile on his face as he tilted his head to the side and grinned softly over at Faith.

"You could say that…speaking of which," Faith started to say with a slight nod of her head before she pulled a bottle of Jack Daniels out from behind her back and held it up for Wesley to see.

"What, where did you…how did you get that past the doctors…and Angel," Wesley asked with a very surprised but not upset frown on his face as the drug induced fog that he was under cleared a little and he painfully sat up. He eyed her for a moment and took in that her hospital gown left very little to the imagination and his mind hurt in trying to come up with where she had hidden the bottle to get it into their room.

"Wouldn't you like to know…as for the where there's a little liquor store around the corner, they never even knew I was gone, now if you're good I just might show you someday," Faith said with her usual snickering smile as she unscrewed the lid and picked up the two small cups with straws in them that had been previously filled with water.

"I look forward to that day," Wesley said back weakly with a tired smirk on his face, earning a similar one from Faith, before she leaned over and handed him his glass.

"Me to," Faith thought to herself with a nervous toast to Wesley before she lifted her glass to her lips and drank it all down in one gulp.

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Willow stood at the foot of the bed watching Kennedy sleep. She had barely gotten out of the shower before she had half-heartedly dried off and flopped onto the bed, snoring before her head hit the pillows. Something just didn't feel right about how she had come home, rushed into the bathroom, turned the shower and the radio up louder than usual, and then fell asleep without even a word. Willow hoped that she was just being paranoid but something kept feeling off. She was about to put Kennedy's clothes into the hamper when her cell phone rang, with one of her contacts on the other end, telling her about an odd looking bunch that had just walked into the hospital a few hours earlier. Willow was going to let it pass without much concern before her contact mentioned that one of the men that had come in had bleached blond hair and the deepest pair of blue eyes, not to mention godly cheekbones. Willow had to almost shout over the phone to stop the woman from describing the man that had come in with the others earlier. It hit her two seconds later who her contact was talking about. She thanked the contact and said that she'd be right over before grabbing her coat and heading out into the hallway.

"Where are you off to at this hour," Giles asked sleepily with a tired yawn as he passed Willow in the hallway.

"Uh…a hunch, probably won't pan out, I'll be fine, when Kennedy wakes up tell her that I want to talk to her, I'll be back before lunch," Willow said softly with a nervous and jittery smile on her face as she started to walk backwards down the hallway, hoping that Giles would let it pass.

"Okay, but be careful…with Angel here in Rome we can't let our guard down," Giles replied with a concerned and uncertain frown on his face as he sleepily nodded his head.

"Right, bye Giles," Willow shot back with a cheesy grin on her face before she slid into the elevator and left the hotel.

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"You know, we're not going to get away with this," Wesley said softly with an unhappy pout on his face as he looked up at Faith, who was sitting lightly beside him on the bed as he had laid back down after feeling a bit woozy.

"How so," Faith asked through her glass, as she didn't show the least bit of fear or apprehension about what might happen to them if they were caught drinking in a hospital.

"I don't know about the doctor's and nurses but both Angel and Spike could smell alcohol on a mummy's breath even after two and a half thousand years, lord knows they've drank enough of it," Wesley remarked back with a slightly impish smirk on his face back up at Faith towards the end as even though she was taking a drink at the moment Wesley could see the edges of her mouth begin to curl up into a grin.

"We're so busted," Faith mumbled back through a mouthful as she tried her best not to laugh before swallowing and spray Wesley and the bed with the booze in her mouth.

"That's one way of putting it," Willow interjected with what she hoped was a confidant, if not daring, tone of voice as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned up against the doorway.

"Willow…what, what are you, how did you," Wesley stammered out with a look of surprise on his face as he fumbled around in an attempt to set his half full glass back on the nightstand while Faith slid off of Wesley's bed with a guilty look on her face.

"A friend of mine works here, she called me, told me all about this weird group of…what happened to you," Willow started to say with a proud and even a bit dirty grin on her face before she got a good look at Wesley and gasped.

"Take a wild guess," Wesley slipped back with an angry and sickly smirk on his face as he caught Willow's gaze briefly before looking away.

"All these bumps and bruises were courtesy of B's boy, his flunkies to, but you get the picture," Faith grumbled back with the sarcasm in her voice almost venomous.

"What…why, he wouldn't," Willow started to say with a look of sadness and disbelief on her face as she shook her head, reaching Wesley's bedside, before she was interrupted.

"You don't know him, any of you, he's not the celebrity that everyone thinks he is," Angel stated with a cold and grim scowl on his face as he slowly paced into the room, his cold lifeless gaze never leaving Willow, leaving little to no doubt in her mind that what he spoke was the truth and not spin.

"And you do," Willow softly stammered out, not really thinking clearly, as she knew that she had to say something but couldn't quite figure out what at the moment.

"Better than you, of course the last time that I saw him before the party was over a hundred years ago…but I don't forget being tortured for hours down in his dungeon's for hours while he had his way with Darla and Drusilla, Spike and I tried to…but just like now he had his guards distract us long enough for him to slip away," Angel replied with a very serious and impatient frown on his face as he stepped into the room and approached Willow, never taking his hands out of the pockets of his coat.

"What, why didn't you say anything when, why didn't," Willow started to say with a confused and fearful expression on her face as she struggled to keep up with and fully process the load of information that she was receiving.

"I what, tell Buffy…I tried to when we came to Rome months ago, all that we got was the brush off from Andrew and the runaround from the Immortal…again, taking every opportunity to rub his dating Buffy in our faces, knowing full well that we had to be back in LA with the head and," Angel answered softly at first as he stopped walking towards Willow before he finished the rest off under his breath, with Willow believing that she heard him curse some insane woman that gave him a new coat.

"This shell has memories of you," Illyria stated from out of the blue as she walked into the room, dressed in the outfit that she had adopted shortly after killing Fred.

"Sorry Angel, I tried to stop her," Nina added with a nervous and unsure look on her face as she meekly followed Illyria into the room and shrugged her shoulders at Angel, who scowled back at her but kept himself from glaring in an attempt to not scare Nina, or make her think that he was angry with her.

"It's okay Nina, she has a mind of her own, it doesn't do any good to try and control her," Angel glumly replied with an unhappy and slightly irritated tone to his voice as he turned back around to face Willow.

"What is she, look out she," Willow started to exclaim with an almost frantic expression on her face before Angel reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from reaching into her pockets for more than likely something to cast a spell with.

"She's with us, she's not going to hurt you," Angel stated with a clear look in his eyes though he didn't keep his gaze locked on Willow long before looking back at Illyria.

"She killed the slayers that we left behind when we raided the nest, how can you defend her," Willow grumbled out with a look of total disbelief and confusion on her face as she wrenched her arm free of Angel's grasp and glared up at him.

"I'm not defending her, I just know that you can't bring those slayers back every bit as much as I can't bring Fred back," Angel replied softly with a defeated and almost humbled light in his eyes.

"But," Willow started to snap back with an unhappy frown on her face before she was interrupted by a smiling Spike.

"You know I don't get why everybody hates hospital food, it's not half bad, they even have this onion thing here that…oh balls," Spike announced with an almost oddly chipper smirk on his face as he walked casually into the room and stopped at Angel's side, clapping a hand down onto Angel's shoulder just before his grandsire leaned back enough for him to see Willow.

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"You're pretty late," Dawn said softly with an almost motherly look of unhappiness on her face as she glanced over at the clock on the wall and then back to the deck of cards that she held in her hands.

"I'm a big girl Dawn, I can take care of myself, the Immortal and I just lost track of time, besides what are you doing up this early," Buffy replied with an exasperated sigh as she took her coat off and sat down on the couch beside Dawn.

"Couldn't sleep," Dawn replied sadly as she began to shuffle the deck of cards before setting them facedown on the coffee table in front of her.

"What are you doing," Buffy asked with a concerned and confused look on her face, as she looked first at the deck of cards on the table before looking back up at her sister.

"Playing a card game, what's it look like," Dawn replied softly with a hint of anger in her voice, as she began to dole out the cards in two small piles as if someone else was going to play with her.

"Pretty hard to play alone isn't it," Buffy asked with a slightly worried look on her face as she slowly reached out and hung some of Dawn's hair back behind her ear so that she could see her face more clearly.

"Spike and I used to play it all the time while you were gone, it helps me relax sometimes," Dawn replied coldly as she picked up one of the small piles of cards and turned them over, being fortunate that Buffy couldn't see the tear forming in her left eye as she was sitting on Dawn's right side.

"Oh…sorry, I didn't know," Buffy stuttered back softly with a sad expression on her face as she hugged her coat tightly to her body and shivered a bit, as if the room had suddenly grown cold.

"Do…do you ever wish that he hadn't died that day, that he was still here with us now," Dawn asked softly as she absentmindedly began to arrange her cards before she couldn't help but sniffle sadly, an act that Buffy caught.

"Sure, every day Dawnie, every day," Buffy replied with a slightly cheesy smile at first while giving Dawn a one arm hug before she had to stop speaking to keep from letting her voice break with emotion.

"What would you do, if he just showed up here one day, like usual completely out of the blue when we least expected it," Dawn asked with a fearful and worried look in her eyes as she turned her head towards Buffy, and for the first time Buffy fully saw that Dawn was on the verge of crying.

"Do what I apparently failed to do before, prove to him that I truly loved him…then kick his but for leaving us," Buffy almost whispered back with a look of honesty on her face as she let go of her coat with her free hand and reached up and brushed away one of Dawn's tears before pulling her into a comforting hug as the tears started to come freely.

"Yeah, and then what, what about the Immortal," Dawn asked softly back through the hug as she let her hand of cards drop to the floor.

"Well I'd…I'd um, have to," Buffy started to stammer back with an unsure frown on her face as Dawn pulled away to look her in the eyes with an unhappy scowl on her face before Dawn's cell phone rang.

"I'd better get that," Dawn said with a very serious and almost angry look on her face as she pulled away from Buffy, picked up her cards, and then answered her phone, leaving Buffy to stare in wonder and surprise.

"Dawnie," Buffy mumbled softly with a pleading tone to her voice as she laid a hand on Dawn's shoulder.

"No, it's not to early Kristine…I couldn't sleep, yeah Kennedy got back okay, she didn't say anything just took a shower and went to bed, do you want me to tell her to call you when she wakes up…huh, she hung up," Dawn said softly into her phone as she carried on a conversation with one of the Immortal's lawyers before Kristine suddenly hung up.

"That was weird, why would she be calling about Kennedy this early in the morning," Buffy said with a confused look on her face as Dawn shut her phone and laid it back on the coffee table beside the deck of cards.

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"This is all to freaky, what's her story again," Faith asked softly with an on edge tone to her voice as she kept herself ready for anything while helping Wesley sit up before she sat down on his bed beside him.

"Remember when I told you about how Angel tried to call Giles for help but he kept putting him on hold, well Illyria was the being that was killing…that killed Fred, after it was over and she was de-powered she hung around, followed me around like a lost kitten, expecting me to explain everything to her, all the while looking like Fred," Wesley replied softly, at first with a calm look on his face as he watched Nina try to get Illyria to sit down in one of the chairs on the other side of the room, before his tone changed to one of bitterness and regret towards the end. Faith stayed eerily silent during his answer but when he hung his head and squeezed his eyes shut at the end, almost in an attempt to block out the memories, she slowly and cautiously slid her left hand over the top of Wesley's left hand and gave it a supportive squeeze, her heart beating like mad.

"But I thought that you said that she bought it in the fight with the Senior Partners, what is she doing here," Faith asked softly with a confused look on her face as she dared her game a bit further and laid her chin on Wesley's shoulder and leaned up against him.

"I don't think we'll ever fully know," Wesley replied solemnly before going quiet and breathing in and out, watching Nina fail to get Illyria to sit down, while taking solace in Faith's touch.

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"You're not supposed to be here Red, this isn't how it's supposed to go," Spike grumbled with an impatient pout on his face as he paced back and forth in the waiting room, appearing very much like a small child that had something special planned for their parent when the latter got home but didn't get it fully finished in time.

"Oh really, and how was this supposed to go, how long have you been back, why didn't you say something, Buffy's," Willow started to exclaim with an unhappy and upset frown on her face as she started to storm towards Spike before he spoke up.

"To busy with her new beau to care about either one of us, and I hadn't really come up with how it was supposed to happen, I just know that this wasn't it," Spike shot back with a frustrated and anxious look on his face as he tried to remain calm.

"A couple of weeks after Sunnydale was destroyed I got the amulet that I gave to Buffy in the mail, the amulet fell out of the package, hit the ground, and released Spike," Angel interjected with a serious and somber frown on his face as he stepped in between the two.

"Only something wasn't right, I couldn't touch anything, much akin to a bloody ghost, tied to the Wolfram and Hart building, could only go so far as the city limits before I'd pop back to the lobby, that of course was after the whole where'd Spike go fun," Spike added with a grimly sarcastic expression on his face as he chuckled a little at his own misfortune.

"Then one day poof, another package, big flash of light, he's a real boy again, right before that psycho slayer cut his hands off," Angel continued with a slightly less serious look on his face and tone to his voice as he stepped out from in between the two and took a couple of steps back towards Wesley and Faith's room as he saw Illyria step out of it.

"Luckily for yours truly Wolfram and Hart has a decent undead health care plan, otherwise I'd be having to hold my cigs with my toes," Spike said with a darkly sarcastic grin on his face as he held his hands up high enough that his sleeves slid down a bit and Willow thought that she could almost make out a line where they had been reattached.

"But Andrew, he said that there was only you, he didn't say anything about Spike, oh he is so gonna get it," Willow started to say with a confused look on her face before the thoughts behind her words sank in and she understood, vowing to make the former evil nerd pay.

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"There you are, where have you been," Kristine exclaimed with a worried sigh of relief as she hurried out of her office and grabbed a tired looking Kennedy's arm before pulling her back into her office.

"I got in late, needed a little sleep," Kennedy mumbled back with a guilty expression on her face as she slumped down in a chair and refused to meet Kristine's gaze while she went around the room, closing the shades and finally locking the door.

"You shouldn't stay out all night with Mercedes, you can't trust her," Kristine said with an impatient and anxious look on her face as she stepped away from the door and hesitated momentarily before walking around the chair that Kennedy was in.

"I know that, she's a vampire," Kennedy replied with an unconvinced frown on her face as she wearily stood back up and started to turn back towards the door.

"That's not it, they don't really want you, the Immortal or Mercedes, when she's done with you Mercedes will turn you into one of her children, and the boss…he's using you to hurt your friends," Kristine replied with a scared look on her face as she stepped in front of Kennedy, laid one hand on the back of her wrist while bringing the other hand up to cup Kennedy's cheek as she drew close.

"Aren't you doing the same thing though, hitting on me because," Kennedy started to say back softly with a slightly nervous look of fake anger on her face as she told her body to pull away from Kristine, but her body stayed where it was. She was surprised, and a bit relieved, when Kristine leaned in and kissed her softly and sweetly.

"I'm hitting on you because I like you Kennedy, not because anyone told me to," Kristine whispered back under her breath into Kennedy's ear before she pulled back and kissed Kennedy again while the two edged closer to the desk.

"Prove it," Kennedy started to say back with a daring and almost arrogant look in her eyes before Kristine's office was turned into a mess and any vampire in the building had to put in earplugs to get any work done.

END OF CHAPTER 13


	14. Pain And Suffering

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.**

**Author's Notes:**

**Tamara: Dawn might, though if she does she doesn't know it yet, how's that for confusing…**

**Jess: Trust me you're not the worst reviewer ever, that title goes to those who only write flames as reviews, whether they actually read the story that they're reviewing or not**

**CHAPTER 14-PAIN AND SUFFERING**

"What's that," Willow asked softly with a nervous smile on her face as she walked up to Nina and tried to start up a conversation that could take her mind off of seeing an alive Spike months after his death.

"Nothing…just my pitiful attempt to pass the time until they release Wesley and Faith," Nina replied with a self-doubting sigh as her shoulder slumped and she stopped drawing. When Willow had entered the small break room she had found an empty pot of coffee and Nina sitting cross-legged at one end of a plush couch, looking like she was surviving more on grit than on energy, hard at work with a pen and a napkin.

"What is it," Willow asked softly with a nervous look on her face as she tried to make small talk with a woman that she knew nothing about, other than that fact that she and Angel were an item.

"A memory…I think, after the last few months I'm not sure what's real anymore," Nina replied softly without taking her eyes off of the image on the napkin, though Willow could see that her eyelids were beginning to droop and she was fighting back the urge to yawn.

"It's pretty good," Willow started to say with an appreciative smile on her face as she looked down at the napkin and recognized Angel, though he looked oddly like a puppet, before Nina glanced up briefly and interrupted.

"Pretty good for an art school dropout you mean," Nina interrupted with a somber frown on her face as she momentarily stopped scribbling on the napkin, looking as if she were debating whether or not to ball it up and throw it in the trash, before she returned to it with vigor.

"You went to art school," Willow asked softly with a consoling and comforting tone to her voice as she cautiously sat down next to Nina, hoping to not scare her.

"For awhile yeah, back in LA, then of course the whole…went back for a little bit, bet they all think I'm dead now," Nina replied with a soft haunted laugh before Willow saw her eyes moisten like she was about to cry but she sniffled and regained her composure just in the nick of time.

"Are you okay…you seem a bit jumpy," Willow wondered with a concerned look on her face as Nina looked to be exhibiting signs that one would usually think of a junkie having.

"Not really, I haven't slept in God knows how long and if I don't get some blood soon I'm going to rip someone's throat out," Nina started to answer softly with an odd chuckle and smile on her face before she balled her hands up into fists towards the end, grinning slyly up at Willow at the end.

"Wait, you're a vampire…but I thought," Willow replied softly with suddenly a very awkward look on her face as she started to rise before Angel walked into the room.

"She's not a vampire, she's a werewolf," Angel explained with a worried look on his face as he walked across the room and sat down in between Willow and Nina, hesitantly reaching out to Nina.

"Hence the need for the blood," Nina mumbled out softly with a tired look on her face before the yawn that she had been holding back finally won.

"She doesn't drink blood like vampires, she just has a little now and then to keep the werewolf inside of her docile, at least until the full moon" Angel said softly as he answered Willow's unspoken question before she could utter a sound, even though his back was to her at the time.

"Oh…that's…new, how long have you been a werewolf Nina," Willow stammered out in classic fashion at first before she recovered and switched the subject to something easier.

"Little over half a year, picked the wrong night to go jogging, lucky for me Angel and the others were nearby," Nina replied with an unhappy expression on her face as she rolled the napkin up and then shoved it into her pocket.

"But like usual with my luck I wasn't fast enough, the werewolf had scratched and bitten her, she used to spend the full moon in a cell in the basement of Wolfram and Hart, but now that it's gone we'll have to come up with something new," Angel said back with a concerned look on his face as he squeezed an arm in between Nina and the couch and pulled her close. At first Nina seemed to not want anything to do with Angel, but as his fingers touched the bare skin of her arms the fight left her and she laid her head down on Angel's shoulder.

"Maybe she could do what Oz does, with the beads, he can keep himself from transforming, most of the time," Willow replied with an optimistic smile on her face as she sat up straight and then stared over at the clock on the wall.

"If we live through this maybe we'll look him up," Angel said with a worn out look on his face before he pulled Nina a bit closer to him and she fell asleep almost instantly.

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"Never done that before," Kennedy said with an awkward frown on her face as she pulled her bra down off of the lamp and snapped it on as Kristine was pulling her head through the top hole in her shirt.

"Me either, but I liked it," Kristine said back softly with a nervous but excited smile on her face as her whole face brightened up at the end, causing Kennedy to have a hard time to keep from smiling back.

"Me to," Kennedy thought to herself with a slightly impish smile on her face at first as she turned away from Kristine to go in search of her socks before her guilt kicked in.

"What were you and Mercedes doing last night, you weren't doing anything illegal were you, I'm a good lawyer but even I can't perform miracles," Kristine asked softly with a serious look of concern and fear on her face as she stopped after getting her shirt on straight and walked over to Kennedy.

"Just out on a hunt, nothing illegal, the Immortal wanted us to see if we could find Angel and his gang, we didn't have any luck…at first, then Mercedes," Kennedy started to answer with a forced look of calm on her face before her guilt showed through and she hung her head and went silent before she could finish.

"I get the picture, she certainly has a problem with that doesn't she, she seems to run on sex and booze, one of these days that won't be enough for her and she'll coming looking to make a withdrawal, and I don't mean from a bank," Kristine said back with a serious and worried look on her face as she edged closer to Kennedy before getting really close and whispering the last part into Kennedy's ear followed by a gentle kiss against her neck.

"I can handle Mercedes Kristine, you don't need to baby me, I'm almost eighteen," Kennedy grumbled back with an unhappy frown on her face as she found her jeans and then pulled them on, buttoning the button and zipping them up in seconds.

"You're right, you're not a child, but look at the watchers council…the old one, how many years of experience did they have, did all of those accumulated years of experience save them, nope…it all went up with them when they were blown up, experience isn't everything, Mercedes isn't a fool," Kristine replied back softly with a subtly stern expression on her face as she and Kennedy finished getting dressed before she opened the curtains and unlocked the door.

"Only for love," Kennedy replied softly under her breath before Kristine leaned in close and gave her one last kiss goodbye and then let her go. Twenty minutes later the Immortal stood in her doorway, holding something behind his back.

"Kristine…you disappoint me," The Immortal stated with an unhappy smile on his face as he stepped into the room, leaving the door to be shut, locked, and then guarded by some of his most loyal guards.

"I'm sorry sir…I don't know what you mean," Kristine said with a quickly growing look of fear and uncertainty on her face as she slid her glasses off of her nose and stood up, her hands shaking slightly.

"You should know better than to undermine me, I'm trying to build a better life for everyone here, and what do I see, my best lawyer screwing a slutty slayer," The Immortal snapped back with an angry sneer on his face before Kristine started to turn away. She was just turning her head back towards him when the sweet spot on the bat slammed into her midsection. She cried out in pain as she felt a few of her ribs breaking. "I have no problem with your preferences…but then you have to fuck up and screw the witch's girlfriend without my permission," The Immortal added with a furious scowl on his face as he readied to strike again with the baseball bat while Kristine coughed up a little bit of blood and struggled to breathe.

"I…," Kristine mumbled out softly with a very pained look on her face before the Immortal swung again, this time an overhead chop down onto the forearm of her left arm as she was using it to try and stand up. She screamed in pain as the force of the swing easily snapped the radius and ulna in two. She dropped down to her knees and tried to cradle her left arm but two of the guards acted quicker, one grabbing her right arm and dragging her out from behind her desk and the other then kicking her hard in the side. "Please," Kristine begged with her eyes brimming with pain and tears as she struggled to keep from passing out.

"You should know that never works with me you stupid bitch," The Immortal growled back with a mocking sneer on his face before he took a step forward and kicked her straight away in the face. Blood blew out of her nose as it broke, with the force of the blow almost knocking her out but in the end sent her flopping back onto her back on the floor.

"Now the real fun begins," One of the guards grunted with an evil gleam in his gaze before he pulled a pair of brass knuckles out of his pocket and then advanced towards Kristine.

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"Have you seen Willow," Xander asked with an impatient frown on his face as he walked up to Buffy, who looked more than a bit glum.

"Not lately, she left earlier, said something about one of her contacts having something for her, she didn't say what it was though," Buffy replied back with a somber expression on her face as she closed the magazine that she was making a poor effort to read.

"Did she say where she was going," Kennedy asked softly with a worried look on her face as she walked into the lobby and revealed herself after having spied on the beginnings of the conversation for a couple of moments.

"No, she left in a hurry though, should I even ask where you've been all day Kennedy," Buffy replied with suddenly a very firm and commanding tone of voice as she laid the magazine down and stood up, making sure that Kennedy knew that she meant business.

"Great, I have the whole night free and Willow's nowhere to be found, do you know if she took her phone with her," Kennedy grumbled with an unhappy pout on her face as she started to walk past Buffy and Xander and make her way towards the elevator before stopping suddenly and turning around to ask her question.

"I don't know, after her contact called her she bolted out of here pretty quickly, you could always check in your room," Buffy said back with a deep in thought tone to her voice as she studied every aspect of the younger slayers mood and posture, hoping to figure out what was really going on with her.

"Right, be right back," Kennedy said slowly with an unsure look in her eyes as she turned back around and dashed into the elevator.

"There's something going on here Xander, and we owe it to Willow to find out what," Buffy stated with a very firm tone of voice as she pushed up her sleeves and went to work.

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Mercedes awoke and glared at the clock. She had set the alarm to wake her up eight hours after she had set it, however something had happened and she had slept two hours longer. Growling low she threw back the covers and got out of bed. She downed a quick glass of blood in the small kitchen before heading to the bathroom, walking right into the shower and turning it on as she liked to sleep in the nude. When she was done she got dressed and left her apartment, using the underground tunnels to make her way back to The Immortal's offices, expecting him to have an assignment for her. However when she arrived she instantly smelled blood, not an altogether odd fact, but one that struck her in an odd way. She had only smelled this blood once before, when Kristine hadn't been looking where she was going and walked straight into a door that she thought was open.

"Krissy," Mercedes mumbled softly with a steadily growing look of concern on her face as she walked past the receptionists without acknowledging their greeting and salutations and instead headed towards the legal department. She walked around a corner and stopped dead in her tracks as the smell of blood very nearly overwhelmed her. She rushed forward through the slightly darkened hallway and burst into Kristine's office, breaking the door down in her actions. "Oh fuck," Mercedes gasped out softly with a look of horror on her face as she took stock of the scene in front of her. Kristine lay on the floor beaten horribly and covered in blood, her clothes were ripped and torn all over the place and Mercedes could hear that she was barely breathing.

As tears sprang to her eyes Mercedes ran forward and knelt down beside Kristine, feverishly checking for a pulse, hoping that she wasn't to late. She grinned briefly as she found one before she checked her over to make sure that there were no major wounds on her body that would stop her from being moved.

"Come on baby stay with me here," Mercedes said softly with a scared tone to her voice as she did her best to carefully pick Kristine up and then turn around to the door. "Out of the way," Mercedes shouted loudly in alarm as she took off back out of the trashed office and headed for the underground, sprinting through the tunnels towards the nearest hospital.

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When the nurse came in at night to give Wesley and Faith their meals she found them both sitting on his bed, one leg crossed underneath them and the other dangling off of the side of the bed. The two were putting their heads together and writing and drawing down everything that they could remember about their incarceration. Wesley was having more of a tough time of it as most of his injuries were still healing and that left the writing and art chores to Faith. She swore that she had terrible handwriting and after a short while Wesley was forced to agree with her, though he had gone far enough to make a slight joke about it. Faith had started to lift her gaze up and glare at him but at the moment that their eyes met she could only summon up an impatient pout, which caused a few dirty thoughts to flicker through Wesley's mind.

"No that's not it, you've got it all wrong, we turned left at the broken light and right at the drip," Wesley stated with a tired and impatient frown on his face as he shook his head and sighed.

"Are you sure about that, because I remember that it was the other way around," Faith shot back, more in a playing a game manner than really angry manner, as she lifted her pencil up off of the paper and slid off of Wesley's bed.

"Realistically I'm not sure that we can fully trust either of our memories on that one Faith, neither of us were in any condition to map the layout of the tunnels appropriately," Wesley said back with an impatient frown on his face as he watched the nurse set their food down onto the little rolling trays by their beds and then leave.

"Guess it's self serve then," Faith joked with an amused smirk on her face as she half got out of bed and pushed Wesley's tray over closer to him so that he could grab it without moving his sore left before she pulled her own supper over.

"It would appear so," Wesley grimly replied with a disapproving look on his face as he picked up his fork and lightly tapped what he guessed was apple crisp before he set his fork back down and picked up his spoon.

"You don't have to eat that swill, I saw a Chinese place down the block, if you two want I could get you some, though I'm a little short on the Benjamin's at the moment," Spike stated softly from the doorway with a humorous smile on his face as he stepped into the room and grimaced at the food on the trays.

"But I'm not, I borrowed some from Giles yesterday, if you guys know what you want," Willow offered up with a helpful smile on her face as she peeked in from around the corner, half watching Spike and half watching Wesley and Faith.

"Be our guest, I don't think that I could stomach much more of this," Wesley replied sadly with a look on his face that one gets after having forced themselves to swallow something that they found to taste very revolting.

"Good, then it'll give Spike and I a chance to talk, come on Spike let's go," Willow said back with a determined look on her face as she leaned into the room, grabbed Spike's arm and then pulled him back out of it just as Spike was about to argue.

"What's this all about Red, you don't need my help to get Chinese food, or is there something that you're not telling me," Spike asked with an impatient and nervous look on his face as the two made their way out of the hospital.

"I want to know what you're going to do about Buffy, are you going to try to win her back…or kick her in the face like Angel," Willow asked with a very calm tone to her voice as she glanced over at Spike briefly before pushing open a door and heading out into the night.

"Honestly…haven't thought that far ahead yet, okay look I know that I love her but," Spike started to say with a bored tone to his voice before Willow turned back and glared at him lightly and he got to the point.

"All you need is love Spike, remember that," Willow said back softly with a cheeky smirk on her face as she left his side and started walking towards the restaurant.

END OF CHAPTER 14

Author's Note: I said that this would be a darker story and I meant it. Kristine being brutally attacked was solely meant to show further proof of the Immortal's true nature and to set up some twists and turns later on. I do not endorse or approve of his actions and I wanted to kill him off the entire time I was writing that scene, but he's needed for a few shockers later in the story. Feel free to wish the bastard a slow and painful death, by whatever means you want. Who knows I might just take suggestions about how to kill him and use one of them in the story, though The Immortal is still going to sink a little lower in his future actions so be warned, no one is safe.


	15. The Nose Knows

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**Author's Notes:**

**J-Willow will comment on a lot of things, Angel/Nina being among them, Kristine will stick around at least for the time being, and remember Spike and Mercedes have met before. The Scoobies will continue their detective work, though without knowing what they've stumbled onto yet. But even if they figure out what's going on with Kennedy there are many more mysteries yet to come.**

**Tamara-There's always a chance, but first more mystery for Mercedes with the aftermath of the attack on Kristine. The Immortal will suffer when he finally dies, though he'll be taking someone with him when he dies. This story will still probably have a Spuffy ending to it, though if it does it'll be a twisted Spuffy ending.**

**Jess5x5-More is coming…well actually it's here, hope you like this chapter, don't worry about your reviewing skill, it's fine…gee I wonder where the 5x5 part came from…**

**CHAPTER 15-THE NOSE KNOWS**

Immediately upon Mercedes' entrance through the front doors of the hospital there was a flurry of activity. The doctors rushed Kristine off to the first available emergency room while another tried to talk to Mercedes and find out what happened. At first she ignored the doctor trying to talk to her and shouted down the hallway at the doctors to help Kristine. When she finally calmed down a bit she gave a believable story about how she found Kristine and that she herself wasn't injured before she rushed off to one of the bathrooms to clean up. She couldn't stomach the thought of ingesting any of Kristine's blood, even though she was beginning to get a little hungry. When she had finally made herself look halfway presentable she rushed back to the nurses station and asked what was going on. She was directed to a waiting room in the middle of the building. Fighting back tears she took a seat and took a useless deep breath, knowing full well that she was going to be there for a while.

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"Where have you been," Dawn asked with an unpleasant expression on her face as she looked up and saw Willow stepping out of the elevator.

"Uh…seeing a friend," Willow replied with a slight stutter as she tried not to look like she knew something that she wasn't telling the others. Something that would affect them all profoundly, perhaps none more so than Buffy and Dawn.

"Kennedy came back earlier looking for you, she went to your room, got something, and then left again, I don't have a clue where she is," Dawn shot back with a very somber and cold look on her face as she walked past Willow and headed towards her room.

"Thanks…uh Dawnie, did I do something to you…were we supposed to do something today and I forgot about it," Willow asked with a nervous and confused look on her face as she turned around and stared at Dawn's back.

"Nope, everything's just fine," Dawn started to say back with a morose tone to her voice as she turned the knob on her door before Willow spoke up.

"He's back Dawn, Spike's back," Willow stated quickly with a hurried look on her face as she rushed forward to stop the younger girl from walking away.

"That's not funny," Dawn finally said softly after several moments after her body initially went rigid and she froze in her tracks.

"It wasn't supposed to be, he's back Dawn, right now, he's here in Rome, he's with Angel at the hospital that I met my contact at," Willow replied with a very serious and concerned look on her face as she walked forward and laid her hand on Dawn's shoulder.

"What," Dawn asked softly with a shaking voice as she slowly turned around, and Willow was struck by the look of restrained joy in Dawn's eyes.

"He's alive Dawn…or at least as much as he ever was, he came back," Willow continued with an earnest look of sincerity on her face as she caught Dawn's gaze.

"Show me," Dawn said back, suddenly regaining her composure and reminding Willow greatly of Buffy in the middle of a major fight, before she brushed a bit of hair off of her face and then walked back to the elevator, repeatedly pushing the button for the elevator to open its doors.

"What, Dawn I," Willow stammered back softly with a scared and confused look on her face as she turned around and started forward.

"I want to see him now Willow," Dawn snapped back with a very determined look on her face as she balled her hands up into fists while waiting for the elevator doors to open.

"Okay…we're going," Willow weakly said back with a nervous look on her face before the doors opened and the two stepped inside, with Willow hitting the button for the lobby before the doors closed.

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"Is that all she does," Faith asked with a confused look on her face as she sat down in the wheelchair and then backed it up in between their beds so that she was almost eye to eye with Wesley, who had just woken up.

"Who," Wesley asked softly with a tired look on his face before he yawned widely and rubbed his eyes.

"Fr…Illyria, doesn't she have to eat…sleep," Faith asked, having to work to get the name right, as she nodded her head towards Illyria, who sat in one of the chairs on the other side of the room staring off into space.

"She sleeps, though I doubt for very long," Wesley replied with a sarcastic smirk on his face as he looked over briefly at Faith before reaching out and gently brushing a lock of hair off of her face and pinning it behind her right ear.

"Oh," Faith stated back in an almost stunned into near silence manner as she held tightly to the armrests of the chair and turned to Wesley, not being able to stop a slightly crooked smile for working its way onto her face and a bit of blush from rising to color her cheeks.

"We cannot stay here any longer, they will find us," Illyria suddenly stated with a very clear and firm tone of voice as she stood up and turned to Wesley, appearing almost as if she were a robot and someone had just flipped her switch and turned her on.

"Gonna half to be a bit more specific there Smurfette," Faith asked with an impatient look and a sly smile on her face as he fought back the urge hit something and remained seated in the wheelchair.

"I do not understand," Illyria stated back with a perplexed expression on her face as she leaned back a bit and turned to Wesley, expecting him to answer her question immediately.

"La," Faith started to add with a mocking grin on her face before Wesley reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Not now Faith, you can't make fun of someone unless they understand the context of the joke," Wesley replied softly with the faintest hint of a smile on his face before Angel walked in.

"How's Nina," Faith asked with a bored look on her face as she got up out of the chair after Angel looked at Wesley's hand on her shoulder and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Finally asleep, Willow went back to the hotel promising to not tell anyone and Spike's checking something out on another floor, how's everyone here," Angel replied softly at first with a visibly relieved expression on his face as he nervously slid his hands into his pockets, hunched up his shoulders a bit, and shuffled his feet.

"Should we be worried about Spike, not him…but whatever it is that he's checking out," Wesley asked with a concerned look on his face as he sat up slowly as Faith kept watch over him out of the corner of her eye but otherwise did not move a muscle to help him.

"I don't think so, I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary and he's not going far, what we have to do now is find a doctor and leave, we can't stay here much longer, I'm surprised that we haven't seen one of the Immortal's flunkies here already.

"I believe that we have, earlier I briefly woke up and saw one of the orderly's reading my chart very closely and writing something down on a small notepad, I think that it's a safe bet that the Immortal knows exactly where we are," Wesley started to say with a nervous look on his face as he slid his legs over the side of the bed and started to slide out. At first his legs held, but after the injuries that he received added in with the time of not using them Wesley's legs gave way.

"Wes," Faith exclaimed loudly with a stunned expression on her face as she snapped around and provided Wesley a shoulder to stand fully back up and keep himself steady as she stayed at his side, watching him closely with a very concerned look on her face.

"You're right Wesley, he probably does know that we're here, I'll go find a doctor…you take it easy, and use the wheelchair, I don't need you passing out on me before we get out of here, things might get interesting," Angel replied with a serious look on his face as he stared straight ahead at Wesley before he turned on his heels and left the room, leaving Faith to help Wesley into the wheelchair that she had just vacated moments before.

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"I could ask you what you're doing here but then I'd just be blowing smoke up your ass," Spike stated with a cold tone to his voice as he walked up to Mercedes, who was sitting in the waiting room in one of the chair with her head down and thinking about anything but Spike.

"Yeah well…Spike," Mercedes started to growl back with an angry scowl on her face before she raised her head and saw who was speaking to her.

"Guess you're not a total loss…now I'm giving you five seconds to tell me why I shouldn't stake you right here and now, I know all about you and Kennedy so don't give me any reason to," Spike started to say softly with a slight shrug of his shoulders before he surprised Mercedes by grabbing her by the throat and then slamming her against the wall, keeping his hand closed tightly around her throat. Usually in this situation Mercedes would have started to fight back at that point, however she simply didn't have the heart for it at the moment.

"She…Kristine, he…hurt her," Mercedes choked out through Spike crushing her windpipe before what she was saying got through to him and he loosened his grip on her throat, but kept her slammed up against the wall and completely at his mercy.

"Who the bloody hell is Kristine," Spike snapped with a tempered look of anger in his eyes as he kept his grip and made sure that he got the message across to Mercedes not to fight back.

"A friend of mine, she's a lawyer for the Immortal, she, Kennedy and I…I found her on the floor of her own office, covered in blood and nearly beaten to death, he could have killed her," Mercedes started to reply with a timid and scared look on her face as she expected Spike to explode at any moment before she couldn't contain her anger any longer at the end and shouted the last bit straight into Spike's face. He closed his eyes during her outburst but kept his temper in check and swallowed hard before speaking again.

"That doesn't make any sense, she's on his side, why would he," Spike asked with a very pointed scowl on his face although he loosened his grip on Mercedes' neck just a bit.

"I don't know, I just found her like that, they won't let me see her," Mercedes stated back with a very worried look on her face before Spike had to do a double take to make sure that he wasn't seeing things as tears appeared in Mercedes' eyes. The entire time that he had known her he had only seen her cry once, and that was after she had eaten the rest of her family. He had thought about telling her on that day that she had done something grand by killing her parents and her brothers and sisters however when the moment came he had found that he hadn't anything to say.

"So this bird's important to you," Spike said softly with a confused but slightly more relaxed tone of voice as he let go fully of Mercedes' neck before being taken aback as she leaned forward and laid her head on his check and started to cry, nodding her head ever so slightly. "I'll take that as a yes, but what about Kennedy, can't say as I'm very fond of the bitch but Red's a friend of mine and," Spike started to add with a tense and anxious tone to his voice as he awkwardly began to comfort his former minion before she pulled back just enough to look up at him and wipe away a tear.

"It's complicated, I was supposed to lure the slayer away from the witch, I asked Kristine to help, it wasn't supposed to happen like this," Mercedes replied softly with a very worried look on her face as she slowly laid her head back down onto Spike's chest and then started to cry again. That would be how Angel would find them thirty minutes later.

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They stepped off the boat in one after the other, keeping their heads down so that no one could recognize them. They had paid for their passage across the sea by doing whatever job needed doing. The captain had been skeptical of them at first but after the ship had sailed through a particularly rough storm and the two had stayed at their posts through the worst of it his attitude changed. The others on the journey avoided them at all costs, mumbling jeers under their breath. They were an odd pair at that though, one a young man of college age, hiding his face behind his bangs and barely speaking to anyone, and the older man that wore his hair long and had grown a beard. They both kept to themselves and only appeared to any of the ships passengers or crew outside of work when it was an absolute must. They had met shortly before the battle in LA, but didn't know the full scope of their shared experiences until after the fight was over and Angel and the others presumed dead. A nest of vampires that had resided on the docks for decades disappeared that night as the two men found new lodgings before beginning their search.

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She grew tired of the parties and gatherings that she got invited to. She had left LA before the shit had really hit the fan, not wanting to get caught up in the maelstrom. She had though shed a tear after hearing about the deaths of Angel and the others. But she had been savvy in her grief, keeping any outward show of sadness to herself until she was alone and could use her wealth and resources to try and figure out what had happened. By the time that she figured it all out she discovered through several contacts that some of them were not dead. Wanting answers she packed for war, making sure to bring along the key to her new life, and set out for Rome.

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"Find anything," Angel asked with a very serious look on his face as Spike walked back into the waiting room.

"You could say so, remember that vamp that was sleeping with Kennedy earlier," Spike started to reply with a slight shrug of his shoulders before Angel cut in.

"Come on Spike, not this again, I told you then that," Angel interjected with a frustrated and impatient scowl on his face as he shook his head before Spike quickly replied.

"It's not that, she was the lead that I went to check out, I smelled something familiar and it was her, she works for our old friend the Immortal, seems she and one of his lawyers were supposed to split Kennedy and Willow up, but then something went wrong and the Immortal beat her lawyer friend to a bloody pulp," Spike replied with a very serious and somber expression on his face as he lifted his gaze up to match Angel's before nodding back towards the stairs that he had just walked down.

"How can you be sure it was the Immortal that assaulted her lawyer friend," Angel asked with a growing look of concern on his face as he dreaded what would probably come next.

"Because after I talked to her I slipped past the doctors and visited her, she reeks of him…the bastard knocked her around pretty good to, got so many cuts and bruises that she looks more like a mummy than anything else," Spike bitterly said back as he sneered at the memory of what Kristine looked like lying there in the hospital bed.

"You didn't sire her did you, the vampire friend of yours upstairs," Angel asked with an unsure frown on his face as he hoped that he was wrong.

"Nope, staked him though, bloody git…named her Mercedes because he thought he turned her in the back of a Mercedes, fool couldn't even tell his cars apart, had the imagination of a gnat," Spike answered with a grim and mocking tone to his voice as he scowled at the memory of Mercedes' sire.

"Well we can't all be me," Angel mumbled softly to himself with an amused smirk on his face before both vampires stopped silent by a gasp from behind them.

"Bloody hell," Spike stated with a look of shock and surprise as he looked past Angel and back towards the doors of the waiting room as Willow and Dawn stood there, with the former looking quite guilty and the latter looking like she was ready to pass out.

"Willow, what is this…is Buffy here to," Angel exclaimed in shock at first before he glared across the room at the witch and asked a very pointed question, his expectations being that they were soon to be surrounded by young slayers.

"N…no, just us, I had to tell her," Willow mumbled back with a sad and scared look on her face as she jutted her bottom lip out a bit and then pouted

"Spike…are you…real," Dawn stammered out with a look of disbelief on her face as she slowly started to walk across the room towards him, barely taking note of Angel as she brushed past him.

"Yeah Niblet, I'm," Spike started to answer with a nervous but happy smile on his face before he glanced up to Angel, just in time to miss Dawn rear back and smash him in the nose with her fist.

"Damn it, what the bloody hell was that for, what is it with you Summers women and my nose," Spike growled back in shock and some pain as he covered up his nose with one hand and took a half step back away from Dawn.

"You idiot…you weren't supposed to leave, you were supposed to be the one to stay, she loves you, you left…you left," Dawn began to grumble back with an angry scowl on her face before as she went on she began to cry more and more and her voice faltered considerably as she pounded her fists against Spike's chest. Just when he thought that she was going to hit him in the nose again Spike was taken by surprise as Dawn instead threw her arms around him and buried her face into his chest, letting the tears flow.

"I see you haven't lost your touch," Angel remarked with an amused smirk on his face as he grinned at Spike and then turned and left the room, dragging Willow with him.

END OF CHAPTER 15

Note: Dawn finding out about Spike might be a little rushed to some, however it now brings up a whole new set of possibilities as well as there's another mystery on the horizon.


	16. Getting To Know You Again

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**Author's Notes:**

**Sorry about this one being a bit later but they changed my hours at work and I bought a few new video games so my schedule has been all messed up, but don't worry I'll continue to write this story and others and hopefully get them out on a regular bases like usual.**

**Tamara: Dawn will find it hard to keep quiet about something this big, but she will be able to talk to Willow about it as well as Angel and his group. The Spuffy ending will come but like I said will be a bit twisted and dark and won't please everybody about how it happens…desperate times call for desperate measures…**

**J: I like her to, the identity of the two guys will become known soon enough, though none of the three will be major players just yet, leaving plenty of room for the regulars.**

**Jess: Dawn and Spike will become friends again and almost back to the big brother and little sister roles that they used to have in their relationship, with some cute moments ahead for the two, though no shipping for the two.**

**CHAPTER 16-GETTING TO KNOW YOU AGAIN**

"Giles, have you seen Dawn anywhere, I can't find her and she was supposed to help chaperone the new slayers today," Buffy asked with an impatient scowl on her face as she walked into Giles' office, finding him bent over a stack of papers on his desk.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't," Giles softly answered with an overwhelmed sigh as he shook his head and then took his glasses off.

"When I find her she is in so much trouble, I swear," Buffy started to say with an upset scowl on her face before Xander ducked into the room and interrupted.

"Uh Buff, you seen Willow today, Kennedy asked me if I knew where she was and…well I don't have a clue," Xander wondered aloud with a nervous smile on his face as he walked in and shut the door behind him.

"I'll help you find Willow Xander the second that I find Dawn, if we're going to find out what Kennedy is up to while still doing our council duties then we're all going to have to be on the same page here, and someone isn't helping," Buffy replied quickly with a frustrated shrug of her shoulders as she poked at a couple of the things hanging on Giles' wall before turning back to look at Xander.

"What Kennedy is up to, what's going on," Giles asked sharply, as if he had just woken up and only heard half of a conversation before jumping into it with both feet.

"Easy Giles, we're not sure of anything yet, Buffy just has her suspicions," Xander replied with a relaxed smile on his face as he walked over to Giles' desk and then started to pick up one of the odd looking objects on top of it.

"Don't touch that, if you are going to investigate Willow's girlfriend don't you think that you should talk to her first…Willow I mean," Giles snapped sharply at first as he smacked the back of Xander's hand before he turned back to Buffy and sighed.

"Great idea there Giles, except that we're trying to do this undercover, we don't want Willow to know about this, especially if we're wrong," Xander stated with an anxious and scared smile on his face as he nursed the hand that Giles had smacked while backing up behind one of the chairs in the room, looking to Buffy.

"But you don't believe that you are, you believe that Kennedy is leading a kind of double life," Giles wondered with a concerned look on his face as he took out a small notepad and began to jot a few things down.

"That's putting it mildly, Willow's said that there have been days when Kennedy will be gone for hours…and when she comes back she'll be a mess and there's an odd perfume smell to," Buffy replied softly with an apprehensive expression on her face as she tapped her fingers on the armrests of the chair.

"Has anyone actually asked Kennedy about where she goes or what she does during those absences," Giles asked with a calm look on his face as he carefully voiced his question.

"Yeah…of course, she just gives some flimsy excuse about doing some grunt work for the Immortal and then takes a shower and goes to bed before Willow can ask her anything else," Xander replied with a nervous look on his face as he nodded his head slightly before Giles asked his next question.

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"How long have you been back," Dawn asked softly with a curious look on her face before she placed her straw between her lips and sipped a bit of her drink. After the tearful reunion Spike and Dawn had retreated to a dark corner of the hospital's cafeteria and gotten something to eat. Actually Dawn had ordered most of it with Spike just paying for it as he felt that he owed her.

"It depends Bit, do you mean how long has it been since I first popped out of the amulet, or how long has it been since I've been a real boy," Spike replied back with a snarky smirk on his face as he reached over and stole one of her potato chips.

"What's the difference," Dawn asked, her mouth full of food, after she had thought for a moment about how to respond to Spike's question.

"There's a big difference, I popped out of the amulet only a couple of weeks or so after Sunnydale went the way of the dinosaur, it hasn't been that long since I got my body back, still like to know how that happened, one minute I'm arguing with Harmony and the next there's this big flash of light and I'm corporeal again," Spike said back softly with an amused smirk on his face before he popped the chip into his mouth and began to chew.

"Why didn't you call…or write, I wouldn't have told anyone," Dawn asked with a scared look in her eyes after she swallowed and grabbed another chip.

"I know, it's just after how I went out I didn't think that…," Spike started to say with a suddenly nervous look on his face before Dawn interrupted him when he went silent for more than a few seconds.

"That what, that she'd still love you, that we'd miss you…well sorry pal but we did, all of us…okay maybe not Xander, but I missed you, and Buffy, she missed you to," Dawn interjected slowly with a serious look on her face as she lightly tapped the back of Spike's hand with her finger.

"Move on pretty quickly though didn't she, got one look at that randy bastard and forgot all about," Spike started to argue back with a dismissive look on his face as he began to shake his head before Dawn stopped tapping the back of his hand and grabbed a hold of his hand before speaking.

"She doesn't love him Spike, she's with him because she can't stand to be alone, she won't admit it but when she's alone she feels like she's failed somehow, that no one loves her, she tries to act all happy and good while everyone else is around, but I've heard her crying at night Spike, what the two of you had doesn't just end like that," Dawn stated with a very firm and believable tone to her voice as she squeezed Spike's hand hard to make sure that he would look her in the eye as she spoke.

"Normally you'd be right, but I saw her with my own eyes Dawn, a few months ago, out on the dance floor livin it up with that…that," Spike started to say with a slight shrug of his shoulders and sad look on his face before he grew bitter and spat out the end as his hands clenched tightly into fists.

"What happened between the two of you, you guys used to work together or something, a business deal gone bad," Dawn asked with a look of scared disbelief on her face as she nervously pulled her straw back to her lips and took a small sip.

"About a hundred years or so ago Angel and I had a run in with the Immortal, Dru and Darla of course were fascinated with him, couldn't stop talking about him, Immortal this and Immortal that, then one night he invites the ladies up to his bedroom for a little fun, all the while stringing Angel and me up in the bloody dungeon and letting his goons torture us for fun, then he had the nerve to not let us kill him," Spike said softly with a cold and unhappy frown on his face as he related the story, half expecting Dawn to laugh at several points along the way as he watched her face closely.

"Uh huh, and now," Dawn stated with a very thoughtful expression on her face as she pursed her lips a bit and lightly tapped her chin with the end of her right index finger.

"And when we came to Rome looking for the head of a demon clan, the guy's actual head, that bastard makes sure that we see him dancing with Buffy, then everyone joined in on the fun and made sure that we couldn't get close to them to settle the score," Spike answered with an upset frown on his face before he stole another of Dawn's chips.

"Wait…you were in Rome, why didn't we know about it," Dawn asked with a confused and amazed look on her face as she sat back up straight in her chair and looked straight at Spike.

"You and Buffy were gone when we arrived at your apartment, Andrew let us in and told us how happy you lot were…and that we should move on like Buffy obviously had, Peaches has Nina and I," Spike softly said back with a relaxed tone to his voice as he stole a couple more chips from Dawn's plate, as she fake scowled angrily at him, before her ears and her interest picked up at the end and she grinned.

"And you," Dawn asked with a sly grin on her face and a modest wink, leaving little doubt in Spike's mind what she was asking.

"No Niblet, like usual I'm flying solo," Spike grumbled back with a sad pout on his face as he solemnly munched on the chips.

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"Willow," Mercedes asked with a confused and surprised look on her face as she poked her head around the corner and looked down the hallway, after seeing her hurry bye seconds earlier.

"Huh, what…oh uh…do I know you," Willow exclaimed with a start at first before she turned around, calmed down, and noticed that she thought that she had seen this young woman somewhere before.

"Not really, I've worked with Kennedy a few times, assignments for the Immortal mostly," Mercedes said back, proudly at first, before the full effect of what he had done to Kristine caught up to her and her voice broke.

"Oh really, on what kind of assignments," Willow asked with a concerned and curious look on her face and tone to her voice as she started to walk towards Mercedes, as of yet no warning bells going off in her head that she was a vampire. Mercedes looked ready to explain away at first before she realized what she would have to say so she improvised.

"Nothing important really, take out a vamp nest here, recover an artifact there, stuff like that," Mercedes replied with a slightly shaky voice as she did her best to smile innocently before Willow looked her over once and figured out that she had been there awhile.

"I see…so what are you doing here, you're not hurt are you," Willow mumbled out at first as at that time she hadn't made up her mind before she caught a bit of a whiff of blood and looked back at Mercedes with a worried look on her face.

"I'd give anything for that to be true, no thanks to my vampiric constitution and all I'm fine, it's…it's Kristine," Mercedes moaned back with a very sullen and worried look on her face as she bowed her head a bit and looked up at Willow through the trusses of her dark crimson locks.

"Kristine, who's that…wait, you're a vampire, does Kennedy know," Willow repeated the name slowly as she tried to remember if she had ever heard that name before she realized what Mercedes had said.

"Of course, she knew before she even met me, Kristine works for the Immortal to, she's in the legal division, she's a lawyer," Mercedes joked back with an oddly reassuring smile on her face as she tried to laugh off the idea that she might trick Kennedy before she spoke proudly of Kristine.

"That's good, is she here to see someone, a client," Willow wondered with a now more confused expression on her face as she could now tell that there was something big that Mercedes wasn't telling her. At that Mercedes began to tear up but she steeled herself and calmed herself before answering, though Willow did notice the reaction.

"If only, no I came to work to find her…on the floor, beaten and bloody and…I rushed her here, the doctors won't tell me anything since I'm not family," Mercedes brushed off at first with a vain look of hope on her face before as she explained she couldn't help the flashes of the sight of Kristine lying on the floor covered in blood from flashing through her mind, allowing a single tear to slide down her smooth cheek.

"Oh no…do the police have any idea who attacked her," Willow asked with a very concerned frown on her face as she started to think of ways to help Kristine get better as well as if she should bring this fact up to Giles and Buffy and get their input.

"The police don't know a thing, they don't even know that she was attacked, no Willow, I know exactly who attacked her, one of the benefits of the whole vampire package, I just wish that I knew why," Mercedes stated back coldly with a mocking and jeering tone to her voice and a half look of disgust on her face as she clenched her hands tightly into fists, looking like she wanted more than anything to hit something.

"Who then, tell me, who attacked Kristine," Willow demanded with a fervent look of determination on her face as though she didn't know the whole story she now had decided that she had to do something.

"The Immortal of course," Mercedes softly whispered back with a terrified and haunted look in her eyes as she locked gazes with Willow long enough for the witch to understand that she was not in the least bit trying to deceive her.

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Angel watched her sleep carefully, wishing terribly that he had a pad of paper and a pencil to render her likeness in some way other than in his memory. She had fiercely fought to stay awake for several hours, not wanting to miss out on anything. But it hadn't taken long for her resolve to weaken and her eyelids to become heavy enough that she could no longer fight. Angel had nicked one of the blankets from an empty room and did his best to cover her with it without causing her to wake up. He grew a but curious when he saw a small piece of what looked like a napkin sticking out of one of her pockets. Letting his curiosity consume him Angel crept forward and slowly and carefully pulled the napkin out of her pocket, all without bothering Nina's slumber.

"Wonder what she," Angel started to think to himself with a slightly happy smirk on his face before he unfolded the napkin and grinned despite himself. On the napkin Nina had doodled a drawing of him back when he was a puppet, complete with him holding his nose and saying that he was made of felt and that his nose came off. Angel grinned and had to steel himself to keep from laughing before he held the napkin in one hand and reached his other hand to take a hold of Nina's left hand that was poking out from underneath the blanket. As softly as he could he rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand, loving how smooth and warm her skin was. He had just leaned in close and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead when he sensed Spike behind him, standing motionless and silent in the doorway. Turning to Spike he started to tell his grandchilde with a glare to stay silent but in the end he didn't need to as he could tell by the look on Spike's face that he understood and wanted to talk outside the room.

"She okay," Spike asked softly with a concerned look on his face after Angel shut the door behind him.

"For now, when she wakes up we have to be ready to leave, with Willow and now Dawn knowing where we are it's only a matter of time before everyone knows, and I'd rather not give them that little piece of information to easily," Angel replied with an equally concerned look on his face as he stuffed the napkin into his pocket.

"Red's going to take Dawn back now, she's agreed not to say anything but she knows that Andrew knew about me for months, I can't say as I see that ending very well for the guy," Spike said back with a tired look on his face as he fiddled around in his pockets looking for a cigarette as he nodded his head towards the cafeteria.

"Andrew's not our problem right now, Faith will be okay soon enough but Wesley's going to need awhile, he doesn't have the bonus of slayer or vampire healing, broken ribs take awhile to heal," Angel announced with a particularly grim look of worry on his face as he began to slowly pace back and forth in front of the room with Spike looking on with his head cocked to one side.

"So why is it that I can see him rushing headlong into battle before he's completely healthy, I doubt we have that much time Angel, this is all going to go down before then, though we might be able to cover more ground if we leave Faith with Wesley for awhile, to look after him and see that his recovery goes smoothly," Spike shot back with a pursing of his lips before a grin spread across his face as he began to slowly rock back and forth on his heels.

"That could work…but…are they, I mean have they even…I know that I was late finding out about Wes and Fred back at Wolfram and Hart but," Angel asked with an oddly nervous and uncomfortable expression on his face as he looked back down the hallway first towards Wesley and Faith's room before turning his gaze back to Spike.

"Beats me, though they have been a bit chummy lately haven't they, and when we found them they did smell a bit like…though I don't think that they've gone that far yet, both probably still trying to figure out if there is anything between them, after all it's not like Faith's the most open slayer about her emotions," Spike replied softly with an amused expression on his face as he turned back to face Angel.

"Though Wes never really was the type to talk about his feelings, at least not to me," Angel added with a concerned look on his face before the doors to the waiting room burst open and the room began to fill with the Immortal's men.

END OF CHAPTER 16


	17. Frozen Paradise

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**Author's Notes: It had to happen sometime…and here it comes…though I'll leave you guessing as to exactly what "it" is until it happens in the chapter…though given my ships it shouldn't be to hard to figure out, though it's a bit more descriptive than I usually am, but still within the rating guidelines.**

**Tamara-Spike seems to always try to stay calm around Dawn regardless of the situation.**

**Jess-Yes a cliffhanger…ooh I'm evil, lol. Anyway hope you like the next chapter.**

**CHAPTER 17-FROZEN PARADISE**

"I cannot wait until we are far from here," Faith grumbled with a large yawn as she threw her arms back and stretched a bit, popping her back in the process.

"I would if we knew where we were going next, or how Angel expected to get us out of here without paying, the hospital staff won't be happy about that," Wesley replied weakly with a slightly pained grimace on his face as he shakily stood up out of the wheelchair and leaned up against the wall to stay standing.

"Simple Wes, by the time that they come calling for the Benjamin's you and I will be nowhere to be found, I'd like to see them try to take Angel to court," Faith jokingly replied with a content smile on her face as she lightly tapped her knuckles onto Wesley's shoulder before Illyria purposefully walked out of their room with Nina in hot pursuit, looking scared.

"Nina what," Wesley started to asked with a confused and alarmed expression on his face before Illyria half turned to him, held up her hand to silence him, and then spoke.

"The half breeds are in peril," Illyria said softly without the slightest hint of concern in her voice before she looked away from Wesley and stared down the hallway towards the waiting room. Faith was about to ask where when she heard the sounds of a violent fight going on in the waiting room, bodies crashing into the wall, chairs being broken, and glass shattering.

"Let's go," Wesley announced with a very weak look in his eyes but firm tone to his voice and set to his jaw as he pushed off of the wall and started to head for the waiting room before Faith jumped in front of him and stopped him with a hand on his chest, with her doing her best to keep it there solely as a deterrent.

"I don't think so Wes, you're still to banged up from our last fight with these guys, better let me and Smurfette handle this," Faith said back with a very firm and serious look on her face as she kept Wesley where he was.

"The spiteful one is right, you are not fit for battle, you will only slow us down, but do not be disheartened, I will bring you a severed head," Illyria added with a less than pleased look towards Faith, who returned the look with an impatient scowl on her face before she turned back to Wesley, who was about to speak.

"See…told ya, just stay here and watch…ya see something that you like maybe I'll get it for you later, come on…five by five," Faith concurred with at first an awkward look on her face as she slowly turned her head back from looking over at Illyria to looking up at Wesley, before finally donning her usual daring grin and winking. Wesley was about to argue when Faith turned around and raced off down the hallway towards the waiting room.

"Come on Wesley let's go," Nina said softly with a very serious look on her face though Wesley could hear the fear in her voice as she grabbed his arm and started to pull him away from the waiting room.

"It would grieve me if you were to perish again, I do not wish to experience that again," Illyria stated with an odd look on her face as she stared at Wesley before she also took off down the hallway to join in on the fight.

"But…ah, bloody hell," Wesley grumbled with an unhappy and frustrated scowl on his face before he relented and let Nina lead him out one of the hospital's back entrances.

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"You ever get the feeling that he doesn't like us very much," Spike asked with an impish grin on his face, while standing on the back of one of the couches, before he leapt off of it and over the heads of two vampires that were trying to tackle him.

"Shut up Spike this is serious," Angel growled back with an angry scowl on his face before he ducked underneath an attack and then slid in behind one of the attacking demons and snapped its neck.

"I mean, last time he just simply strung us up like a couple pieces of meat and tortured us for hours while having his way with Darla and Dru, but now," Spike continued with a fake look of hurt on his face as he continued to fight, almost dancing in between his attackers as he kept them off guard. Angel started to growl something back but a streak of red hair interrupted him as Mercedes, game face bared, tore into any vampire, demon, or guard unlucky enough to cross her path. At first the three vampires held their own, basically toying with their opponents. But by the time that Faith and Illyria burst through the doors the vampires and guard had been replaced by the grunt demons. The grunt demons were of no particular class of demons though as their main lot in life was to fight and overwhelm their enemies. Each one looked a lot like a human, though their skin was a bright orange and each one had few weak points.

"Who the hell are these guys," Faith asked with a serious look of concern on her face as she stopped running into the room and catching sight of the grunt demons.

"Insignificant pawns," Illyria stated with a look of skeptical disapproval on her face as she sneered before launching into an attack.

"Grunt demons, not very bright but harder than hell to kill," Mercedes shouted across the room to Faith as she raised herself back up to her feet after using her fangs to rip the throat out of one of the guards.

"Who are you," Faith demanded with a surprised and uneasy scowl on her face before she was sent tumbling back over one of the chairs after receiving a snap jab from one of the grunt demons.

"Enough of a friend to help right now," Mercedes shot back as she slid back into her regular visage and licked the blood off of her lips.

"Less talking people, Illyria…where's Nina…and Wesley," Angel started to growl back with an unhappy frown on his face before he noticed that he didn't see Nina or Wesley anywhere.

"The half breed is taking him to safety, we cannot win this fight on strength of arms alone, we must withdraw soon," Illyria replied without missing a beat as she caught the fist of one of the guards, began to crush it, and then spun him around she had him in an arm lock.

"We can't leave, not yet," Angel started to shout back through the fight before police searchlights blanketed the windows.

"Perfect timing…as usual," Spike grumbled with an unhappy but sarcastic smirk on his face as he ducked out of the way of one of the searchlights beams before he leaned out to check out what the situation was in the parking lot.

"How many," Angel asked with an impatient tone to his voice as he fought over to Spike and then tossed one of the vampires over his shoulder, through the window, and falling down to the parking lot below.

"To many, time to leave Peaches," Spike joked back with a not very amused grin on his face before the police shot tear gas canisters through the windows of the waiting room while other officers advanced up the stairwells.

"Damn…okay, everybody out now, that includes you," Angel shouted out loudly over the crowd as Illyria pretended that she didn't hear him, before he turned around and grabbed Mercedes' arm.

"What are you…but I have to," Mercedes started to argue back with a very serious and determined look on her face before Spike stepped in.

"We're leaving, your bird will be safe, move," Spike interjected with a very serious tone to his voice and look in his eyes that left little doubt in Mercedes' mind that arguing was out of the question.

"Damn," Mercedes grumbled like a small child that didn't get their way before she wiped a bit of blood off of her knuckles onto her pant legs and then she dove out of the waiting room over a door that was broken in half.

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"Have you seen the news yet Rupert, ghastly attack, undoubtedly the work of that vagabond Angelus and his associates," Roger exclaimed with a discouraged and angry scowl on his face as he shook his head at the television as Giles entered the room.

"Including Wesley," Giles asked with a less than pleased tone to his voice as he sat down in the chair beside Roger and poured himself some tea.

"That boy is nothing to me, he's been a complete and total failure from the day that he was born, he's nothing like me, I don't know where he gets it from, by the time that I was thirteen I had already killed a dozen vampires…Wesley would see a shadow on the wall and wet himself," Roger spat out with a look of such disdain that Giles had to grit his teeth to keep from snapping back immediately.

"He's changed since then you know," Giles softly replied with a measured tone to his voice as he calmly sat back in the chair and scanned the screen.

"For the worse I can assure you," Roger grumpily stated back with a frustrated look in his eyes before he set his tea cup down and then picked up a file and handed it to Giles.

"What's this," Giles asked with a confused look on his face as he turned the file around the right way in his lap and then opened it.

"Her name is Kristine Johansson, she works for The Immortal as a lawyer, handling the simplest of cases," Roger started off with a very calm and almost carefree tone to his voice as he recanted what he had learned before Giles stopped him.

"Then why am I sifting through a file about her," Giles interrupted with a confused look on his face as he half closed the file but slid the picture of the young woman out to the side and stared down at it as he waited for Roger to answer.

"Because sometime yesterday someone broke into her office and brutally attacked her, she was taken to the same hospital that was assaulted last night, she's in a very poor state, the doctor's don't know if she'll make it, the council needs to protect its own now more than ever, I want you and your slayer to find out who did this and see that they be held accountable," Roger replied with a serious and dour tone to his voice as he slowly got up to his feet and straightened his tie. When Giles replied neither men noticed that someone was out in the hallway spying on their conversation. Giles almost caught a flash of Kennedy, as her eyes grew wide in shock and fear before she tore out of the building, headed for the hospital in the first available taxi.

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"Where's Wes," Faith asked with a concerned look on her face as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

"He said that he needed to take a shower, but the only one in here that works is down in the basement, it's one of those old showers, uses well water to so it's probably going to be a pretty cold shower," Nina replied with a tired look on her face as she set about covering up the windows with blankets to block out the sunlight.

"Not for long," Faith mumbled softly under her breath before she silently turned around and walked out of the room, leaving the door ajar and Nina staring back over her shoulder with a confused look on her face.

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Each step caused him pain. Nina had told him that the only working shower was down deep in the basement. As he slowly made his way down the steps he discovered that she hadn't been kidding. After first finding the house, that was being renovated from top to bottom, Nina had raced through every room, making sure that no one was living there while at the same time getting a quick lay of the place, knowing full well what Angel would do later. Angel and Spike had dragged Mercedes off with them as they went on an inspection tour of the house, agreeing to stave off a trip to the basement long enough for Wesley to get his shower in. Illyria had at first wanted to come along and help Wesley but he had waved her off and told her to help Nina. She had done that at first before she had grown bored and went off to explore the upper levels of the massive house that stood on the outskirts of Rome.

Wesley had wanted to wait and make sure that Faith was all right but Illyria had assured him that she was covering their tracks. When he got to the basement he discovered that the shower was in the far corner of the basement, but only after having to weave his way through piles and piles of old furniture and building supplies. The shower itself was a rather simple one. Tucked into a corner with two of the walls made out of what looked like freshly laid bricks while an old curtain had been crudely strung up to give the shower taker some privacy. The drain was several feet away and the showerhead was nothing more than a metal disc that had holes punched out in it. It was obviously only meant to be a temporary shower to be used by the men that were remodeling the building so Wesley silently counted his blessings as he slowly sat down in an old chair and carefully removed his shoes. He grit his teeth to keep them from chattering at the chill in the air. Being underground and with very little insulation the basement would probably serve pretty well as a cooler if nothing further were done. Wesley threw the towel that he had found on one of the upper levels over a sawhorse and turned the water on, not bothering to pull the curtain out to give him some privacy as he was sure that no one would bother him, at least without alerting him to their presence early enough. He closed his eyes and ducked his head and body underneath the descending cascade of water, gasping in shock and almost pain as the frigid water struck his body. It took him a few moments to be able to stand under the shower of water without losing his breath. He grit his teeth and picked up a small bar of soap before beginning.

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She slipped her shoes off a couple of floors above the basement, not wanting to make a sound. She had checked herself and made sure to step carefully on the old wooden floors, sure that she wouldn't be heard as she made her way down through the house. She almost passed the stairwell that led down to the basement until she heard the faint sound of water running and stopped to listen long enough to follow it down the steps. As she paced down the dirty steps she wondered in the back of her mind if she should be doing this at all. Had she stopped and thought about it for a few moments she probably would have turned around and gone back up the stairs and talked to Angel. But here she was, stepping off of the final step onto the floor of the basement and shivering a bit as her feet hit the cold floor. She stubbed her toe against something in the dimly lit room and had to literally bite her tongue to keep from speaking. A smile crept up onto the edges of her mouth as she rounded a corner and caught sight of Wesley, fighting through the cold to take a shower, having left the curtain open thinking that no one would have followed him down into the basement. Faith couldn't help but allow the smile to grow as she slowly made her way forward, a part of her screaming to get out of their while another part was screaming just the opposite, to pounce before he finished. Her mind was made up for her when Wesley unintentionally dropped the soap and in an effort to find it twisted his upper body just enough that he grunted and hissed in pain as he started to drop to his knees.

"Wesley," Faith unexpectedly shouted in alarm as she rushed to his side, stopped momentarily as she nearly passed out and lost her breath at the bitter tang of the frigid water.

"Faith," Wesley spat out through the water, seeming surprised but not entirely upset, as he made no motion to cover himself. Instead he waited until the swimming in his head stopped and he could see clearly again through the water.

"Water cold enough for ya Wes," Faith tried to joke with a weak smile on her face before Wesley couldn't help but glance down a bit. Faith knew almost immediately what he was staring at and a resoundingly sarcastic and witty comment snapped to her lips, but died on them as he twisted just enough and leaned back just enough. Even in the cold of the shower Faith couldn't help but grin.

"Not anymore," Wesley shot back with a daring scowl on his face as he reached up and laid his hand on Faith's thigh that was closest to him.

"You're real bad at this ya know, you think maybe we could," Faith started to say back with an impatient expression on her face before Wesley breathed in deeply and almost instantly grimaced badly in pain and wrapped an arm around his broken ribs while starting to crumble back down to the ground. This time Faith was ready and she moved under him so that she could use her slayer strength to support him, though it did mean her becoming face to face with him and his body draped over hers. She couldn't help the dirty thoughts that ran through her brain or her right hand as it slipped off of his arm and landed on his stomach. She had to concentrate to keep it from going any further downward before she looked up at Wesley and blushed with a guilty look on her face. "I see Wes naked for the first time and I'm blushing like a damn baby," Faith grumbled in her thoughts as she bit her bottom lip to keep her emotions in check before the hand that Wesley had laid on Faith's shoulder slid off, his thumb grazing the side of her breast on the way down.

"Sorry I," Wesley started to sputter out through the cold before she followed her heart and dared to dream, dropping her hand that had been on his stomach down even further with a sly raising of her right eyebrow and sensuous pout on her face. Faith expected him to push her away and fumble for his towel. But he surprised her by using the hand that had just grazed her breast to reach up and return the favor. If she had been inexperienced in sex she might have stopped there or gotten flustered and run away.

"Don't be," Faith started to say with a nervous light in her eyes before her lips found his and for an instant the temperature of the water was forgotten. Her first memory after that was of Wesley, with her assistance stripping off her soaked shirt before she guided his hands down to her jeans as he fumbled to undo the button. She briefly let go of him long enough to slither out of her jeans before she was pulled back into another kiss as his hands snaked around her body, one hand fumbling with the clasp of her bra while the other slid down her back before he took a handful of her butt and squeezed hard. Her breath hitched into his mouth at that time before she did the same, delighting in the flash of lightning that sparkled through his eyes. Wesley grinned into another kiss as he ripped Faith's panties away and then surprisingly had enough strength to wrap his arms around her and lift her up off of the ground. Faith would later admit that she had helped him by hopping up but in the end she'd concede that she was just as eager for it to happen as he was. The cold water did nothing to hinder him as he slid in, with her wrapping her legs around his waist before claiming his mouth with her own, losing her hands in his hair. He responded by slamming her into the brick wall. Her last thoughts before letting go were that she'd probably have some scratches and bruises in the morning, but she couldn't care less.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's Note: Yeah it was a bit more descriptive in the two having sex than I usually am but it's not nearly as descriptive as some of the other sex scenes that other writers have written here. Anyway I thought that it was time that Wes and Faith have sex for the first time and I could see how the whole having it in the basement of an old building in a brick shower with cold water being more their style then some hotel or usually romantic setting. Wesley and Faith aren't normal and both are more than a bit kinky so it'd be an adventure every time that they were together. Hope I didn't go overboard with the scene. Anyway Mercedes didn't want to leave Kristine but she knew that she had to after Spike told her to go, Spike isn't her sire but he might as well be, just wondering if I should have Kristine live or die, and then who should Mercedes be with, stick with Kennedy and Kristine or go with someone new, you all can suggest a character if you want, a cannon character or not. The two mystery guys and the mystery lady will be back, perhaps even a vacationing former cop and an old friend of Willow's that would help Nina out a lot. Though don't worry the guest stars, like the mystery guys are, won't be part of the main story just kind of a side story that culminates at the end. When Roger and Giles talked Kennedy overheard them and then ran off to the hospital. The house that Angel and the gang found isn't one that they can stay in long, but given that they're currently being hunted by The Immortal that's not entirely a bad thing. The Audrey from the disclaimer will show up pretty soon, finally…thanks to you all for reading and reviewing this story and I hope that you all continue to, I'm hoping to break my record of 59 reviews with this story.


	18. Showers

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**Author's Notes:**

**Two chapters for the price of one, pretty cool huh, but sorry about the wait, the next chapter should be up by the end of the week.**

**CHAPTER 18-SHOWERS**

She stared solemnly at the cup of blood in her hands. She knew that she needed it but didn't in the least feel like drinking any of it. All of her thoughts were centered on if she had made the right decision to follow Spike's orders and leave the hospital. Kristine wasn't about to wake up suddenly; the doctors had told her that she would be out for several more days at least. She had been content to stay there at her bedside and wait, knowing that it would be several days before she would have no choice but to leave and get some blood somewhere. She feared that idea though as she hoped that when the time came that she needed blood desperately that she'd be able to control herself and keep from taking the blood from Kristine.

"Is your blood to cold," Nina asked with a worried and nervous look on her face as she cautiously sat down next to Mercedes on the couch.

"No…it's fine, it's just that…wait, you're not a vampire, so what's with the blood," Mercedes started to reply with a nervous and awkward smile on her face before she looked over and noticed that Nina was holding her own cup of blood.

"Werewolf…actually, I don't exactly need the blood like vampires do, but a little every now and then helps keep the wolf inside of me quiet, if I don't have it I get antsy and snap at people and even become violent if I wait long enough," Nina replied softly with a guilty and embarrassed smile on her face as she ever so slightly pulled away from Mercedes before she put the cup to her lips and took a sip, swallowing before Mercedes opened her mouth to speak.

"Okay, that's news to me, we always had one policy for dealing with werewolves, kill them before they killed us…uh sorry," Mercedes stated with a still unclear tone to her voice as she slowly brought the cup to her mouth before she drank some and swallowed hard.

"Yeah…so do you have a soul then, Angel and Spike do but," Nina started to answer with a nervous look on her face before Mercedes' eyes grew wide at the revelation of who had a soul.

"A…soul, Angelus and Spike…my Spike, have souls," Mercedes sputtered out with a look of total disbelief on her face as she nearly dropped her cup of blood.

"Yeah, Angel was cursed with a soul by some gypsies a long time ago and Spike fought for his a year or so ago, they're special," Nina said softly with a slightly confused but content expression on her face before Mercedes stepped back in.

"Guess that makes me special to, because I have a soul," Mercedes mumbled with a nervous and awkward look on her face as she tried to smile for a bit before taking another drink of her blood.

"Since when," Spike wondered with a skeptical tone to his voice as he stepped back into the room and stared straight at Mercedes.

"Since I started working for The Immortal, he has my soul in a small glass urn on his bookcase, he said that if I served him long enough he'd give it back to me," Mercedes shakily replied with a somewhat scared tone to her voice before Spike launched into his next question.

"It doesn't work that way luv, Angel and I have our souls in us like regular people, it's with us all the time, and how do you know that he isn't lying," Spike asked with an impatient and still skeptical scowl on his face as he rounded the edge of the couch.

"Because…I had a friend give me a spell, one time when the Immortal was out of his office I snuck in, said the words, and the urn glowed white, just like it was supposed to, it's my soul," Mercedes replied with a serious look on her face though it was clear to Nina and Spike that she felt ashamed of herself and foolish when she spoke The Immortal's name.

"So why didn't you just take it while you were there," Spike asked with an impatient and unconvinced look on his face as he lightly glared straight down at Mercedes.

"That's exactly what I'd like to know as well," Angel stated with a firm tone to his voice as he walked into the room and steadied his gaze straight at Mercedes.

"Because he came back in right as I was about to grab it, I haven't really thought about it much since, I've been to busy," Mercedes replied with a slightly guilty smile on her face as she meagerly kept her gaze from Angel and Spike and instead drained the rest of her cup of blood.

"Of course…anyone seen Wesley and Faith," Angel grumbled back at first before he posed a question that he wanted to know the answer of sooner rather than later.

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Faith turned the water off and sputtered out the rest of it. They had finished having sex several minutes before but ended up giving each other a shower to remember, leaving Faith wondering why she hadn't done this with others before. But now it was Wesley, and any thoughts of other men left her head quickly. Behind her Wesley ran a hand through his hair before looking down and watching the water swirl down the drain. He was about to speak up when she spoke as she started to squeeze the water out of her hair.

"That was…different," Faith said softly, with her true feelings hidden by the tone of her voice, as she turned around and faced Wesley, trying to keep her eyes focused on his face instead of allowing them to trickle down his body.

"Is that good…or bad," Wesley asked with a nervous and confused look on his face as he started to take a step back out of the shower stall before Faith grabbed his arm.

"Very good," Faith whispered huskily with a hungry look in her eyes before she pulled him back into a kiss that almost led to another round between them but Wesley broke the kiss off reluctantly.

"We have to stop, Angel…the others will be looking for us," Wesley said softly to Faith, as their faces were still close enough that their noses were touching, before Faith jutted out her bottom lip in an impatient pout and locked her arms around the back of Wesley's neck.

"Let em find us, I don't know about you but I've got nothing to hide," Faith said with a confidant and proud expression on her face before she hopped up again, wrapping her legs around Wesley's waist, and kissing him fiercely. They continued to kiss for a few more moments before Wesley's left hand hit a newly formed scratch surrounded by a bruise on Faith's back and she hissed into his mouth.

"Sorry about that," Wesley said softly with an embarrassed and regretful look on his face as he pulled his hand back away from the bruise before Faith answered.

"Don't be, after what I did to you…I got off lucky," Faith joked with a very guilty and self loathing smile on her face as she tried to laugh the pain of the scratches and bruises and the memory of what she had done to him off but failed miserably.

"Yes…without slayer healing my body will take a bit longer to mend," Wesley started to say back with a tired look on his face before Faith accidentally bumped one of his broken ribs with her elbow and Wesley instantly grunted in pain and started to double over.

"Wesley," Faith shouted in surprise and fear as she quickly slid off of him and used her slayer strength and body to support him as she helped him over to a chair that had a small towel thrown over it.

"I…I'm okay," Wesley said softly with a shaky grin on his face as he wiped a bit of blood off of his lips, just being able to hide it from Faith.

"You sure, don't scare me like that," Faith whispered with a very scared and concerned look in her eyes as she sat down in Wesley's lap and wrapped her arms around him, lying her head on his shoulder at the end.

"I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises," Wesley replied with a shaky tone to his voice as he had to fight to keep from coughing again, wincing slightly as Faith leaned back to look him in the eye.

"So what now…for us I mean, was this just a release…or are we really fucked," Faith asked with an anxious tone to her voice and nervousness in her eyes as she ran the pad of her thumb along Wesley's jaw, liking the scratchy feeling.

"Well I…we're bloody fucked," Wesley started to say back with a serious look on his face before cracked a smile and leaned into another kiss.

"Good, then I don't have to pretend to be upset, now I just have to find something to wear," Faith stated with a relaxed smile on her face as she broke the kiss, hopped up off of Wesley's lap and then started to pilfer through the boxes.

"What are you doing," Wesley asked with a tired and pained expression on his face as he pushed himself out of the chair and back up to his feet before Faith turned and tossed him a long sleeved turtleneck.

"Finding some clothes, the ones that we were wearing are all soaked and reek bad, besides, we might find a few…surprises," Faith started to answer with a content and happy smile on her face before she opened a box, quirked up an eyebrow, and then pulled a riding crop and a pair of handcuffs out of one of the boxes, holding them up to show them to Wesley.

"Maybe they have horses…novelty handcuffs perhaps," Wesley said with a weak tone of explanation to his voice as he tried to downplay what the two items might say about the owners of the house.

"Maybe…then again maybe I'm starting to like these people a little more…and these aren't novelty cuffs Wes, I've worn enough of them to tell that," Faith said back with a sly grin on her face as she knew that Wesley had come to the same conclusion that she had but was just trying not to joke about it to much.

"Police handcuffs or…otherwise," Wesley asked with a slightly displeased scowl on his face as he slid the turtleneck on and then crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You keep your nose to mine and maybe you'll find out," Faith replied with a kinky grin on her face and twinkle in her eye before she opened up a box and inside found clothes that oddly enough were her size.

"Is that a promise," Wesley asked with a telling look on his face as he smiled a bit and walked towards Faith, finding a pair of jeans in another box that to his surprise fit him well enough.

"Hell yeah," Faith shot back over her shoulder as she pulled out some of the clothes and slid into them, finally pulling her hair back up into a ponytail so that she could slide a beater over her head and then pull on a men's blue long sleeve dress shirt that she liked the cover of. Her well-worn light blue jeans, with holes in the knees and fraying everywhere, topped off her look of being comfortable and relaxed. She wriggled her toes with a soft chuckle on her lips as she tossed a box aside before finding a pair of sandals that looked like they'd fit well enough.

"God you're beautiful," Wesley whispered very softly as he took a step back and stared at Faith as she started to tuck the beater in before she felt his eyes upon her and she looked up with a sheepish grin on her face while sweeping her hair off of her face and back behind her ears.

"What was that Wes, I didn't quite catch it," Faith asked with in impish grin on her face as she looped her thumbs into her front pockets and began to rock back and forth ever so slightly on her heels, biting her bottom lip just a little bit.

"You heard me, you okay," Wesley grumbled back with a fake look of anger on his face as he zipped up the jeans and then pulled out a pair of shoes that he had seen earlier along with a pair of socks.

"Five by five," Faith shot back with a bored sigh before she turned around and started towards the stairs. "You coming," Faith asked loudly, without turning around, as she lifted her left foot up to the bottom step.

"Do I have a choice," Wesley asked with an impatient frown on his face as he hurriedly put the shoes and socks on and tied the shoes before hurrying over to Faith's side.

"Not in this lifetime," Faith shot back with a proud smile on her face before she hurried up the stairs leaving Wesley behind.

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"Told ya there was something going on between those two," Mercedes said with cute grin on her face as she half turned and spoke back to the darkness behind her.

"Anyone could have seen that, don't get cocky," Spike grumbled with an impatient frown on his face as he stepped out of the shadows in the basement and walked past her. After Wesley and Faith had come back up into the main house and started speaking to Angel Mercedes had slipped away, needing to get out of the clothes that were still covered in Kristine's dried blood. A shower sounded like the perfect thing to her at the moment.

"Kettle…pot calling," Mercedes quipped back with a sly grin on her face as she walked over to the shower, disregarding Wesley and Faith's clothes before she slung her bloodstained shirt to the floor and soon stepped out of her jeans and panties with her bra falling just outside of the shower. She turned the water on and stepped under it before turning around as Spike spoke up.

"Aren't you going to close the curtain, at least act like you have a bit of modesty," Spike asked with an almost bored tone to his voice as he sat down on one of the small couches in the room behind the shower.

"You're on speaking terms with every inch of my body Spike, it's not the first time that you've seen me naked, remember Rio," Mercedes answered with a carefree shrug of her shoulders before she dipped her head down a bit and did her best to rinse Kristine's blood out of her hair.

"Of course, but I don't seem to remember you with red hair, brunette was you wasn't it," Spike grinned and nodded his head despite himself before he grew more serious and squinted at her.

"Yeah, but then I remember being told that you didn't always have the bleached blond locks that you do now so…okay actually it's because the Immortal wanted me to look enough like Willow that I could," Mercedes said back with a shrug of her shoulders as she reached for the soap.

"Steal Kennedy away from her and weaken Buffy and the others," Spike stated with a grim scowl on his face as he stood up and began to pace back and forth just a few feet behind Mercedes.

"He didn't want them together, he said that if they stayed together then they'd threaten his plans…you sure you don't want to join me, we know there's room for two in here," Mercedes answered softly at first with an unhappy frown on her face before she turned back to Spike and wiggled her hips back and forth a bit while grinning wickedly at him.

"Very sure, you and I have had our fun, I've got my eye on someone else right now," Spike said back with a subtle smile on his face as he spun away on his heels and started to slowly walk away.

"She still loves you Spike, you know that right, she wouldn't be with him if she knew that you were alive, I swear," Mercedes said with a very serious look on her face as she turned around and stared at Spike, without the slightest hint of a joke in her voice.

"If only it were that easy luv," Spike softly said back with a sad frown on his face as he sadly smiled and then hung his head as he got closer to the stairs.

"How do you know it's not," Mercedes asked with an impatient look on her face as the rushing water washed away the rest of Kristine's blood out of her hair and off of her body.

"Because nothing that good ever is for me," Spike replied with a somber tone to his voice as he turned around and headed back towards Mercedes.

"Thinking that it's to good too be true huh, kind of like how I felt when the Immortal recruited me out of the slums, I was pulling some pretty shitty jobs for this lowlife chaos demon when he found me, he tried to seduce me but for some reason it didn't work, after that he offered me a job, been working for him ever since…and then next time that I see him I'm going to give that son of a bitch my two weeks notice," Mercedes said with a slight nodding of her head at first before her tone and the look on her face grew bitter as she recanted the story of how she had come under the employ of the Immortal. The edges of Spike's lips curled up into a snarl as her mention of a chaos demon.

"Maybe his plan didn't work because you didn't bat for his team anymore," Spike said back with a cocky smirk on his face as he plopped himself down on the first open chair that he could find and leaned back.

"I bat for both teams Spike, it all depends on the person, or demon," Mercedes interjected with a shrug of her shoulders as she began to lather up.

"Uh huh, just don't go and be getting any ideas about trying it with anyone here, with the scent coming from those two earlier everyone's happy where they are," Spike said with a serious and almost impatient expression on his face as he scratched a bit of black fingernail polish off of one of his fingernails.

"Don't worry Spike, other than those two we passed coming down here the rest of you aren't my type, besides…I'm not going to leave Krissy when she really needs me, or Kennedy…damn, I wonder if she even knows," Mercedes joked back at first with an interested grin on her face before her countenance changed and grew much more serious as she thought about Kristine lying there in the hospital and how Kennedy might react to the news.

"I have a feeling that she does, and knowing the Immortal he'll play the innocent and everyone will believe him, nothing changes," Spike grumbled back with an unhappy sneer on his face as he stood up and then angrily kicked a box of china, shattering every piece inside of it as it flew across the room and slammed into the wall.

"Once I know that Kristine and Kennedy are safe I'm going to rip his throat out and," Mercedes started to say with a very determined and angry sneer on her face before she was stopped as Angel stepped around the corner.

"Get yourself staked at this rate, you get your friends out of the line of fire…the Immortal belongs to me," Angel interjected with a very serious look on his face as he walked over towards Spike with his hands in his pocket.

"Don't you mean us there Peaches, you don't get to have all of the fun," Spike growled with an accusing tone to his voice as he turned his head to look up and over at Angel.

"Trust me Spike you'll have plenty of fun, because Nina just called Willow from a pay phone a couple of blocks away, she's going to get us the book that we need to fully translate the one that you stole…tonight," Angel replied with an equally serious look on his face as he slowly walked past Spike and sat down beside him in the next chair over, trying not to look straight at Mercedes as she continued to shower but couldn't help but sneak a peek every now and then.

END OF CHAPTER 18


	19. Fancy Meeting You Here

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey, who yes will show up soon.**

**CHAPTER 19-FANCY MEETING YOU HERE**

Though she was used to the best of everything she was far from her norm on this night. Slipping from one shadow to another she kept out of sight and watched from the darkness, hoping that someone or something would slip up and lead her to Angel and the others, or at least someone that knew where they were. She tapped a light bulb with her finger and used her ability to overload the filament and blow it, casting her surrounding area into darkness. She waited for a few moments and watched and waited. After nothing happened she was about to move on when she saw a trio of vampires, wearing their game faces, slip out of an alley and start to follow after a couple of homeless men. Shaking her head she stood up and started to make her way towards the end of the alley before stopping suddenly as someone leapt out of the shadows from the other side of the street, directly in between the two homeless men and the vampires.

"Come on boys, the nights still young and you're still standing," Gwen announced with a confidant and combative tone to her voice as she straightened up and leaned back up against a light pole, licking her lips to further sell the act.

"What the bloody," One of the vampires exclaimed with a confused and surprised look on his face as he turned from looking at Gwen to looking at one of the other vampires.

"Beats me," One of the other two vampires growled with a perplexed stutter in his voice as he shrugged his shoulders and leered at Gwen.

"Okay boys this is how this is going to work, you're going to tell me what I need to know…or else I'm going to get upset," Gwen interjected with an annoyed scowl on her face as she started to slide one of her gloves off, making sure that all three vampires were closely watching her every move.

"Get out of our way bitch," The biggest vampire of the three growled with an angry scowl on his face as he drew a knife and turned it just enough so that the light from the streetlight would reflect off of the blade.

"That's not the way you talk to a lady…pal," Gwen spat back with a fair amount of venom in her voice as she squinted her eyes into a glare while readying herself for a fight.

"Heh, I don't see any ladies around here, just a stuck up bitch with a big mouth," The smallest of the three vampires snickered out with a daring grin on his face as he licked his lips and stared hungrily at Gwen's neck.

"Then perhaps you should look a little harder," A voice barked out of the darkness before the voice was followed up by the sight of a late twenty something blonde woman walking out of the darkness carrying a stake in her hands.

"Slayer," The smallest vampire asked the knife-wielding leader with an apprehensive look on his face as he slid his game face off and reverted back to his human visage, which didn't look much better.

"Can't be, they're all holed up at that hotel, the boss said that none of them would be going out tonight, she's not a slayer," The knife-wielding vampire snarled back with an angry sneer on his face before he turned away from Gwen and started to walk towards the blonde woman.

"Take one more step and you'll be sorry," The blonde woman said with a very determined look on her face as she set her feet and readied the stake.

"What you gonna do little miss, stake us," The other vampire joked with an amused grin on his face as he walked out in front of the main vampire a mere two seconds before a short wooden stake flew out of the darkness like it had been fired from a gun and drilled straight through his chest. He didn't even have time to scream or shout before he dissolved into a cloud of dust.

"What the fuck," The vampire with a knife exclaimed with a look of shock and fear on his face before two figures stepped out of the darkness behind the blonde woman with the stake.

"Please step aside Kate, we will take it from here," The older bearded man stated with a chivalrous tone to his voice as he pulled an axe from behind his back.

"Wait a minute here, who the hell are you guys," Gwen snapped with an irritated scowl on her face after having her thunder stolen.

"The damned," Connor grumbled back with a stern look of lost happiness on his face before he raised his arm and fired off another assault at the nearest vampire to him.

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She almost didn't wait for the hospital doors to open fully before rushing through them. The lady at the front desk thought that she was having a heart attack when she rushed up to the front desk and demanded to know where Kristine was. Kennedy no more than got the number, claiming to be a younger sister, before she raced off towards the elevators. She tapped her feet nervously in the elevator as she waited for it to rise up to the correct floor. Once the doors open she tore out of it as fast as she could go, almost crashing headlong into a gurney in the act. She used the railing along the wall to keep herself from slipping and sliding out of control before she arrived at Kristine's room and threw open the door. Her heart nearly broke in two as she first laid eyes on the woman that she had just had sex with a few hours earlier.

Had Kennedy not known her as intimately as she did she probably wouldn't have recognized her. With a staggered step and shaking hands Kennedy made her way over to the chair beside the bed. She slumped down into it and tried to compose herself. Failing to come up with any way to do that she shook her gaze from Kristine's face and instead focused on the various machines that she was hooked up to, hoping that one of them would give her some answers. She didn't recognize any of the machines and had no clue what any of them did. She was just about to start ripping them all out of Kristine when an old doctor calmly walked in, his face lined with wrinkles and his hair gray with white highlights.

"Last patient on the…oh hello, I didn't know that Ms. Johansson's family had arrived yet," The doctor started to say with a soft hum to his voice before he walked in and Kennedy looked up.

"I…I'm not her family, I'm her…partner," Kennedy stammered out with a terrified and confused look on her face as she tried to come up with an answer that at the same time would satisfy the doctor as well as not get herself thrown out of the hospital for not being Kristine's family.

"I see, do you know how she received these injuries," The doctor asked softly without changing the look on his face as he appeared to have taken Kennedy's comment in stride and just kept right on going. Kennedy tried to answer but more tears came to her eyes and so she resorted to hanging her head a bit and shaking it back and forth. "Well then…I am sorry to say that right now things do not look very promising, the injuries that she received were severe, whoever did this to her did not want her to live I'm afraid," The doctor continued with a sickened and upset right down to his core look in his eyes as he tried to keep his composure.

"Is she in pain," Kennedy asked with a scared silly look on her face as she wiped away a tear and then looked back up at the doctor. He started to answer her back before a none to pleased voice from the doorway interrupted him.

"No, but you're going to be unless you start giving me some answers," Buffy stated with a very cold and serious look on her face as she stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and her glare aimed straight over at Kennedy.

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"Care to share," Nina said softly with an amused smirk on her face as she sat down on the couch and looked to Faith, who was trying to get around through the house's half finished living room without stepping on a nail.

"About," Faith asked back with a slightly irritated growl to her voice as she glanced up briefly before returning her gaze to the floor.

"You and Wesley," Nina added with a warm smile on her face at first that slowly grew into a sly grin as Faith entered the room and tried not to admit that she had lost the stay cool war.

"What about us," Faith asked softly with an unhappy scowl on her face before she scrunched up her face in annoyance as she realized that she had slipped up.

"So it's us now…interesting," Nina quipped back with a happy smile on her face as she turned around away from Faith and stared at an old painting that was hanging on the wall.

"Hey, what happens between me and Wes is our business…no one else's, got it," Faith growled back with an attack dog tone to her voice as she balled up her fists in rage and had to steel herself against bashing Nina's face in.

"Got it," Nina started to say back with a slightly scared look on her face as she tensed up before being interrupted.

"Your body warms with thoughts of Wesley, you crave him," Illyria stated softly, as if it were as casual of a thing to say as that Angel and Spike were vampires, as she walked into the room and began to stare at its contents after having stared intently at Faith.

"What…I don't crave," Faith started to snap back with a guilty glare in her eyes before she realized that she couldn't say anymore without admitting everything and bit her bottom lip almost hard enough to make it bleed, silently praying for something or someone to come and save her.

"Could have fooled me," Angel started to say with a sour frown on his face before he stopped suddenly in the middle of the room and cocked his head to one side, sniffing quickly and then waiting and listening as everyone else held their breaths.

"Someone's here," Mercedes announced with a cold and serious look on her face as she walked into the room, pulling a tight black short sleeved shirt on over her head along the way. Faith caught sight of a piece of trashy lingerie, that she had passed over earlier peeking out of Mercedes' jeans and under the shirt, as she slid the shirt on but before she could make a sarcastic comment Spike walked in behind her.

"It's…the Niblet," Spike said with a relieved smile on his face as he started past Mercedes as she pulled her dripping wet hair clear of the collar of the shirt and began to look for a comb.

"What's she doing here, how did she find us," Angel stated with a very concerned frown on his face as he turned back around and everyone could see that he was upset.

"I called her remember Angel, well I called Willow but since Dawn knows what's going on she probably found out and came along, I had to tell them where to find us, besides I'm starving and they said that they'd bring food," Nina interjected with a timid half smile on her face as she expected Angel to be angry with her and didn't want to cause him any more of a hassle than she already had.

"You told us remember Angelus, Willow was going to get the book that you needed to kill that mother fucker," Mercedes started to say back with a bored look on her face before the edges of her mouth curled up into a sneer at the end as she spoke of The Immortal.

"Who are we going to kill," Dawn asked with a good natured grin on her face as she walked into the room with an arm around Spike's shoulders, as the former looked rested and excited and the latter looked a bit stunned.

"You if you weren't careful, did anyone see you, were you followed," Faith grumbled with an impatient look on her face as she hurried over the covered up window and peered out through a small hole in the covering.

"Relax Faith, I told Buffy that I had to go check on one of my contacts, I brought Dawn with me to further convince Buffy and Giles that I wasn't going anywhere to dangerous," Willow replied with a soft smile on her face as she followed Spike and Dawn into the room with her arms full of bags of food and other supplies.

"Someone should still check it out, make sure," Wesley interjected with a calm but yet serious look on his face as he walked into the room and stopped just behind Faith, still looking a little pale and tired but otherwise none the worse for wear, aside from his cuts and bruises that were starting to heal.

"Are you sure that you should be out of the hospital Wesley, you still look a little pale," Dawn asked softly with a worried look on her face as she paused briefly before taking a bite out of her turkey sandwich.

"I," Wesley started to reply with a calm and serious look on his face as he slid past Faith and sat down on the far end of the couch before Mercedes jumped in.

"He'll be fine, provided that he doesn't overdo it," Mercedes interjected with a slight grin on her face before she made eye contact with Willow and then took a step back and seemed to grow suddenly timid.

"Who are you again," Dawn asked with a confused look on her face as she first looked to Spike and then to Angel.

"A…friend," Spike stammered out with a hurried frown on his face before he glanced up to Angel just as the latter spoke.

"That remains to be seen, Faith…go check it out, make sure that they weren't followed, take Illyria with you," Angel grumbled back with an unhappy scowl on his face before Illyria walked into the room, blew off the glare from Willow and the look of surprise from Dawn and then followed a grumpy Faith out of the room.

"What the hell is she doing here," Willow demanded with a very upset look on her face as she had to hold herself back from striking out at Illyria.

"Helping us, it was wrong of her to kill those young slayers, but to her they were the enemy and trying to hold her against her will, she sees things differently," Angel said slowly with an unsure look on his face as he tried to come up with an answer that would further disrupt the situation.

"That's putting it mildly, she's been around since the beginning of time, she makes it up as she goes along," Wesley added with an impatient and anxious scowl on his face before Dawn half turned and dropped a wrapped sandwich in his lap.

"You can sugar coat it however you want Angel, she killed those slayers back at the hotel, first Fred…then the new slayers, who next Angel…you, Wesley," Willow demanded with an unhappy scowl on her face as she continued to hand out the food before Nina spoke up.

"She won't kill Wesley, she won't even lay a finger on him, apparently she still has some of Fred's memories and feelings left over, before the battle in LA she'd follow him around everywhere…like a lost puppy, he was the only one that she'd even come close to listening to," Nina interjected with a slightly amused smirk on her face before she suddenly felt the room grown very cold and in response she took a very large bite of her sandwich.

"How touching…really, now can we please get back to what we're going to do to The Immortal, he almost killed Kristine, remember," Mercedes grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face before growled loudly, turned and left the room.

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"Buffy what…what are you doing here," Kennedy asked with a very surprised and nervous look on her face as she let go of Kristine's hand and wiped away a tear.

"I came here to figure out who beat up one of my boyfriend's lawyers, and big surprise I find you…getting all weepy," Buffy replied with a very serious and upset frown on her face as she tried to keep her emotions in check before she smiled to the doctor as he guessed that he should come back later.

"It's not what you think," Kennedy stuttered out with an overwhelmed look on her face as she slowly stood up and tried to compose herself.

"It had better not be, because to me it looks like you've been cheating on Willow, I don't like it when people hurt my best friend," Buffy shot back with an accusing tone to her voice and look on her face as she slowly shut the door and turned back to Kennedy.

"I didn't…it wasn't supposed to, I know what I did was wrong, but she," Kennedy started to utter back in a staggered reply with a frantic expression on her face before there was a knock at the door. Buffy started to open her mouth to snap back at Kennedy but she quickly closed it before she opened the door a peek and saw that it was Xander and Giles.

"Hello Buffy…Kennedy, what are you doing here," Giles asked with a surprised look on his face as he stepped into the room and caught sight of a noticeably upset Kennedy almost hiding in one of the corners of the room.

"I…uh," Kennedy started to stammer out with a terrified look on her face before Buffy saved her.

"I bumped into her on my way out of the hotel and asked her to come," Buffy stated with a very calm and almost bored tone of voice, perfectly lying for Kennedy.

"Alright then," Giles replied with a satisfied expression on his face as he believed Buffy and didn't give Kennedy's appearance another thought.

"Hey Buff, so is this the…whoa…damn," Xander said softly with a warm smile on his face as he entered the room before his gaze fell onto Kristine and he nearly tripped over his feet before he stopped himself and scowled.

"Poor girl, no one deserves this," Giles mumbled softly with a heartfelt look of sympathy on his face as he sat down in the chair beside Kristine's bed.

"Got that right, when I find the bastard that," Xander agreed with a determined expression on his face at first before he turned as the door opened.

"Buffy…are you in here," The Immortal asked with a nervous look on his face as he took a couple of steps into the room and then spotted Buffy, his face lighting up when he did.

"Yeah I'm…what are you doing here," Buffy replied with a relieved smile on her face before she walked over and gave The Immortal a kiss. As she pulled back she took on a thoughtful expression and stared oddly at him until he spoke.

"I heard that Kristine had been attacked and I came right over to see how she was doing, I don't know who could have done this, everyone loved Kristine," The Immortal answered with a very sad and worried look on his face as he walked to the foot of Kristine's bed and gazed sadly down at her.

"You can't think of anyone that could have done this, anyone at all," Giles asked with a serious tone to his voice as he looked up from his chair.

"No I…well there is one person, a vampire…she might have, her name is Mercedes, she's capable of doing this, if you find her don't listen to her, she lies constantly, I don't even know why I pay her," The Immortal replied with a flabbergasted look of exhaustion on his face as he did his best to sell the lie.

"Alright, we'll find her and make her pay for what she's done," Buffy said softly with a very determined look on her face as she, Giles, and Xander turned and stared straight at Kristine.

"Excellent," The Immortal thought to himself with an arrogant grin on his face as he began to plot his next move.

END OF CHAPTER 19


	20. Hatching A Plan

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 20-HATCHING A PLAN**

The Immortal stood silent as he watched Buffy and Xander talk quietly for a bit before they both left the room. Giles stayed for several more moments, making soft comments about whoever attacked Kristine was a monster. The Immortal did his best to keep the worried and sad look on his face as he nodded his head in silent agreement with Giles and softly asked him if he thought that she would come out of it. Giles wasn't sure and said that he'd have to talk to the doctor's first. He took another look at Kristine's chart before marking a few things down in a folder and then excused himself. Kennedy had kept staring at The Immortal with a wary look on her face until she grew more worried about Kristine and her gaze drifted back to her.

The Immortal relished in the pain and suffering that he saw in Kennedy's eyes and body posture as the once overly proud slayer had been reduced to a quivering mass of nerves and confusion. He knew that if she ever found out the truth that she'd want his head, but if he could play his cards right he could procure himself a new lieutenant to replace Mercedes once Buffy and the others had found and staked her. His only hesitation on furthering his plan was the thought that perhaps Mercedes had actually found Angel and his band and convinced them of the truth. The Immortal was just about to excuse himself when Kennedy stood up and walked out of the room, doing all that she could to keep from breaking down in front of anyone lest they uncover what was really going on. After she had left he moved on to phase two, pulling a small vial out of his pocket. While humming a chipper tune softly to himself he injected the liquid into Kristine's iv drip. Within ten minutes she would crash from a massive heart attack and die, with absolutely no trace of the liquid to be found. Slipping the vial back into his pocket to be planted on Mercedes for evidence against her later on The Immortal wiped the smug look off of his face and joined Buffy and Xander outside.

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"So then you're a vampire right," Dawn asked with a slightly nervous look on her face as she poked her head into a room where Mercedes had retreated to after Faith and Illyria had scouted out and made sure that no one was following them.

"Right on the first try, gee you slayers sure are smart ones," Mercedes shot back with a zealous grin on her face as she looked up from the bed that she had been lounging on for a few moments.

"Hey…well uh, actually I'm not a slayer, but my sister is," Dawn started to exclaim with a combative tone to her voice before she grew a bit embarrassed and explained her situation.

"Good for me then, I'd hate to get staked now, I have to be there for Kristine when she wakes up, so that I can swear to her that I'm going rip the Immortal's black heart right out of his chest for what he did to her," Mercedes stated with at first a half chuckle before her eyes and face grew cold and furious as her hands were tightly clenched into fists.

"He hurt her, Giles got the info earlier today, he was going to go to the hospital to see her today, they left just before we did," Dawn replied with a nervous look on her face as she was still a bit scared of Mercedes.

"And The Immortal," Mercedes asked quickly with a very pointed look on her face as she whipped her head around and stared a hole straight through Dawn.

"Beats me, but I bet that he'll want to see Buffy, he barely gives her any peace," Dawn replied with a bored pout on her face as she thought back on how the Immortal always seemed to be around.

"So he's there…with Kristine, and they don't have a clue, they'll let him get close…they'll let him touch her," Mercedes started to say with a look of sudden realization on her face as all of the pieces started to fit together in her head. As she spoke a chill spread throughout her body and her fists began to slowly shake at the end. Dawn immediately grew concerned as she took a couple of quick steps back out of the room before Mercedes glanced up and noticed her hesitation. "We can't let him near her, they have to be warned," Mercedes snapped with a very determined and serious look on her face as she turned and started to head for the door before Dawn became bold and stopped her.

"And just where do you think that you're going, the sun is up, you can't help Kristine if you're a pile of dust," Dawn stated with a very firm but also honest tone to her voice so that she hoped that Mercedes would understand that she wasn't trying to mock her.

"But I have to go, I can't let that bastard get close to her, he'll try to finish her off," Mercedes shot back with a skittish and anxious look on her face as she was acting more like a junkie in need of a fix than a vampiress that was usually totally in control.

"Sorry luv but she's right, besides Red got in touch with Buffy, something happened at the hospital, Kristine," Spike interrupted with a very somber and serious look on his face as he stepped around the corner and slid in between Dawn and Mercedes as he pulled the latter back into the room with him.

"She…no," Mercedes started to plead with a broken hearted expression on her face before the realization of what Spike was trying to tell her hit and she turned and took a couple of awkward steps back towards the far wall before she dropped to her knees and covered her face. Dawn started to nervously step forward with a sad look on her face and tears threatening to form in her eyes before Spike glanced back at her over his shoulder as he knelt down beside Mercedes. Spike shook his head subtly to ward her off but it was the look in his eyes that gave Dawn the message. With a scared smiled she did a mock bow, shut the door, and then headed off down the hallway to look for a place to cry.

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"Do you think that he knows," Nina asked with a concerned look on her face as she walked past Wesley and Faith, who were seated beside each other on the couch, before she stopped just in front of Angel.

"I don't think," Willow started to reply with a very deep in thought frown on her face as she half lifted her head before Angel stepped in.

"He might, if he's killed this Kristine to shut her up for disobeying him then there's no telling what he'll do to those that he considers to be his enemies," Angel said softly with a very stern and unwavering tone to his voice as he stared straight ahead, but did relax a bit when he felt Nina's hand on his arm.

"B sure can pick em can't she," Faith quipped with a devilishly sarcastic and grim smirk on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned back in her seat a bit, liking immensely that Wesley did not shrink away from her touch.

"Hey…she didn't know, if she had then she would never have," Willow started to state with a defensive look on her face as she tried to stand up for her best friend.

"She knew perfectly well who and what Spike and Angel were when she began dating them, I'm sorry to say that I'm not convinced that she wouldn't have started to date him if she had known the truth about him" Wesley said with a worried but to the point tone of voice as he took great care in bending his elbow enough to scratch an itch on his chin.

"But," Willow piped up again with a nervous look on her face as she scrambled to come up with something to say but couldn't before Illyria walked back into the room.

"I do not know this one who dares to call himself immortal, there is none immortal but me," Illyria stated with a very matter of fact tone to her voice before she half turned and saw the discontented expression on Wesley's face and she held back from continuing.

"Who cares if he's really Immortal, we've dealt with people like that before haven't we," Nina grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face before she looked innocently optimistic at the end, hoping that she hadn't spoken to soon.

"All to often I'm afraid, the only problem with proving that he is not in fact actually Immortal is that there are very few demons that could live as long as we know that he has and be able to alter his appearance so that no one would notice that he was a demon, it's a pretty short list," Wesley replied with a somber and slightly dejected expression on his face as he slumped down in his seat a bit. After making sure that no one was looking Faith slid her right hand over until it was resting on top of his knee and then gave it a supportive squeeze. She snatched her hand back just as Angel turned around and looked their way.

"Maybe he's not altering his appearance, back at Wolfram and Hart we took down a necromancer that could put a demon into a human's body, could it be something like that," Angel asked with an interested look on his face as he explained more than he normally would have needed to for those in the room that hadn't known about that particular mission.

"It's possible, if he is a demon that can possess someone or replace their essence with his own then it would make him appear to be Immortal," Wesley replied with a serious look on his face as he contemplated Angel's idea while deftly sliding his left hand behind Faith's back and rather pointedly tugging sliding his colder fingers first up the small of her back and then back down under her jeans until finding her thong and giving it a tug with one finger. Faith fought hard to not outwardly react to Wesley's actions but inwardly she quickly glanced around to see if there was someplace that they could go to let off a little steam. She was shaken out of her fantasy idea by Dawn who unceremoniously plopped down onto the couch beside her, her eyes a little red from crying.

"If I could get close enough to him without his knowledge maybe I could do a spell that'd tell us if he's using a shimmer spell of some kind or it he's possessing someone," Willow offered softly with a sympathetic look Dawn's way before she began to mull the idea over in her own mind.

"Won't work, he'll never let you get close enough to cast it, besides he's probably already thought of that, we have to look at this another way," Angel quickly stated with a distant scowl on his face as he began to pace back and forth with determination in his steps.

"Okay…what if we trick him then, make the spell different, like how some parents give their children their medication by putting it in ice cream," Dawn replied with a slightly excited smile on her face as she felt that she was on the verge of a great idea but couldn't quite put all of the pieces together just yet.

"I doubt that he likes ice cream Dawn, it's probably a little to simple for him," Wesley added with a serious frown on his face before he gave Faith's thong another yank.

"True, but he does like his wine," Willow said softly with a deep in thought expression on her face as she turned away slightly and began to walk away from the couch and towards the window.

"Meaning," Angel asked with a slowly growing look of interest on his face as he stopped pacing and turned to face Willow.

"What if we got the spell down into like a powder or something, then we could slip it into his drink when he wasn't looking," Nina interjected with a helpful look on her face as she perked up and walked to Angel.

"That could work, though he leaves his wine locked up until he drinks it, I could get into it if I had a little bit of time, but we'd need a big enough distraction to get him out of his office for awhile," Willow replied with a somewhat somber and worried tone to her voice as she turned back into the room and looked straight at Nina.

"Don't worry about the distraction Willow, we can handle that," Wesley started to say with an optimistic but tired and pained look on his face before Faith broke in, shifting just enough in her seat so that he had to pull his hand back.

"What's with the we Wes, you're still to weak to do any good in a distraction, I'll go, you stay here and rest," Faith snapped back with a sharp tone of anger to her voice though Wesley could see the honest concern and worry in her eyes and so disregarded her tone.

"Neither one of you is going anywhere, I'll be the distraction, with Spike and Illyria backing me up, we'll create a big enough distraction that'll give you enough time to slip in and get to work," Angel declared with a very authoritative look on his face as Faith wanted to argue but when she felt Wesley's left hand close overtop of her right hand and squeeze softly that it was pointless.

"If this is going to work I'm going to need the time to sift through all of my books, I'll find the answer in one of them I know it, I just need time," Willow stated with a concentrating frown on her face as a plan started to come together in her mind.

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"I…I'm sorry, about Kristine," Buffy stammered out with a confused look on her face as she finally found Kennedy hunched down, her knees pulled up tightly underneath her chin, in a janitor's closet.

"It doesn't make sense, sure she was bad…but the doctor didn't act like," Kennedy mumbled back softly in reply with a defeated and sick expression on her face as she tried to keep it together and not break down in tears.

"These things can happen, she was already pretty bad off, maybe if she," Buffy started to say back softly with a worried look on her face as she shut the door behind her and pushed a mop bucket out of the way before sitting down beside Kennedy.

"Mercedes…I…I have to tell her, she has to hear it from me, she can't," Kennedy spat out with an almost frantic look on her face as she slid her feet forward across the floor until her legs were straight.

"Xander already called Willow and told her about it, don't worry Kennedy, we'll find Mercedes and make her pay for what she did to Kristine," Buffy started to say back with a very determined look on her face as she started to slide a comforting arm nervously around Kennedy's shoulders.

"What…no, she'd never, Mercedes would never hurt Kristine," Kennedy exclaimed with a very fervent and honest tone to her voice as she balled up her fists and lightly pounded them on the ground at her sides.

"But she's a vampire, she doesn't have a soul," Buffy started to point out with an anxious half smile on her face as she pulled her arm back and brushed a piece of lint off of her jeans.

"Neither did Spike, that certainly didn't stop you…I meant what I said, Mercedes would rather die than do that to Kristine, sure she's wild and crazy but…she doesn't hurt those that she cares about," Kennedy reiterated with a very serious look on her face as she slowly shook her head back and forth and stared straight over at Buffy.

"You mean someone like you," Buffy replied softly after letting out a small nervous breath and guessing that she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

"No I…well yeah…maybe, I don't know," Kennedy stuttered out with a confused and awkward frown on her face before she knew that she had lost and hung her head down in towards her chest.

"You want to tell me what's really going on between the two of you," Buffy started to ask with a perplexed and surprised look on her face before Kennedy one-upped her.

"Three, what's going on between the three of us," Kennedy interjected softly with a skittish tone to her voice as the usually stoic new slayer looked to be almost on the verge of tears.

"Three…okay, that's more than I was expecting but," Buffy stammered out with a look of total surprise on her face before Kennedy sucked it up and began her story, keeping her gaze aimed straight ahead at the door the entire time, never once wavering to look over and see Buffy's reaction.

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Bright pink bubble gum colored braids bobbed up and down and were flipped around from side to side as she ran through the sewers. After having lead a somewhat privileged life, in which she would have died rather than be caught anywhere near the sewers, her life had taken an unexpected turn and now she considered herself an outcast. Her hair had once been a source of pride for her, lording it over her friends as a symbol of her achievement and beauty. After the accident most of it had been cut off. She had never been happy with what grew back and during the slow and arduous physical therapy that followed to teach her how to do everything again she had dyed it one day as a joke. After that she had just continued to die it one bright color after another, anything to keep her mind off of her situation. By the end of her physical therapy she had settled on the current bright pink color.

But all of that seemed well behind her as she literally ran for her life. Somewhere behind her in the sewers a pack of magically enhanced hounds were on her trail. She had been spelunking her way around peacefully mapping out the sewers for further explanation when the animals had picked up her scent. Only her keen knowledge of the sewers and general health had kept her alive this long as even as she leapt over a gap in the floor of the sewer she could hear their barks and howls. In a panic she frantically thought back to the happy days before the accident, when a middle-aged man had approached her parents and told them that their daughter was special, that she was something called a slayer. The man had filled her head with all sorts of wondrous hopes and dreams for the future. But the accident had ended all of those dreams. Left an orphan and abandoned by the man that had called her a slayer good surgeons and a good fight had been the only things that had kept her going through the long hours of grueling physical therapy and the stares of those she had once knew, who now seemed more like ghosts to her. Her old friends had quickly drifted away, not wanting to associate with her. When she had become well enough she had visited every antique book dealer in Rome that she could find, desperately searching for information on the slayer.

She had found out a great deal about the legend of the slayer and as she read about it she was mixed with emotions. Part of her was ecstatic because of how exciting it all sounded and the feeling of the good that she could accomplish with her new abilities. But that was all tempered mightily by the fact that after the accident she had been alone. She guessed wrongly that they no longer thought her worthy of being the slayer and had moved on to another candidate. Secretly she had sworn to get to the bottom of the reason behind her being passed over. The only words that went through her mind was the name of the man that the middle-aged man had told her parents to contact if they wanted more answers, Rupert Giles.

END OF CHAPTER 20

Author's Note: Audrey is the pink haired girl, she's a slayer, but will stay on the outskirts of the story. Sad ending to Kristine's life I know but I needed something to shake things up and it will affect everyone. What should I do with the ships other than Wes/Faith, Angel/Nina, and in the end Spike/Buffy, the rest are wide open as far as I'm concerned. Willow/Kennedy could still end up together, or not…and then there's Mercedes, who's shown an interest…the surprise characters could be paired up…maybe then a little Vi and Andrew perhaps…

As for any of my other Buffy, Angel, Harry Potter, Kim Possible, Popular, X-men, and Mighty Ducks fanfics, feel free to read and review them at your leisure and ask any question that you might have, I also won't be offended upon receiving any story ideas, I've often used people's suggestions in my stories. I won't be replying directly to anyone's reviews anymore as it's no longer allowed by this site, just a bit of fyi for everyone.

So in closing I thank everyone that's read any chapter or this entire story and hope that you continue to read the upcoming chapters. As always reviews are appreciated, plus they help me write chapters faster.


	21. A Chance Is All That I Ask

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 21-A CHANCE IS ALL THAT I ASK**

"I have to say that this all seems a bit farfetched," Buffy said softly with a hesitant look of disbelief on her face as Kennedy finished her story.

"Only because it's all true," Kennedy shot back with a slightly vindictive expression on her face as she wipes away a tear.

"From your point of view it's true, for all you know Mercedes could have attacked Kristine and then just simply fed you a line and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker," Buffy said back with a skeptical tone to her voice as she leaned back up against the wall in the small space.

"I'm not stupid Buffy," Kennedy started to grumble back with an unhappy scowl on her face before Buffy cut in.

"Oh really, then what do you call cheating on my best friend with a vampire and lawyer," Buffy interjected with an almost mocking tone to her voice as the smile that briefly held a position on her face disappeared quickly.

"Look, I know what I did was wrong…I'm not trying to validate my actions, but there are a few things that Mercedes doesn't lie about, and she doesn't have to say anything, I can…could tell, how she felt about Kristine, she didn't always show it openly but it was there…Mercedes didn't do it, but I bet that she knows who did," Kennedy replied with a very stern pout on her face as she had to correct herself, still unaccustomed to speaking of Kristine in the past tense.

"She's still a vampire Kennedy, they lie…it's in their nature, no matter how good they seem to be…the animal inside, never changes," Buffy defended her opinion with a confidant look in her eyes as she calmly looked around the small room at the different products on the shelves.

"I know Buffy, but so do people," Kennedy started to add with an angry scowl on her face before Buffy stopped her by laying a hand on her shoulder.

"You're right, which is why after we get out of here you are going to tell Willow everything the next time that you see her, and if by some small miracle you're still living afterwards then maybe I'll let you tag along when we find this Mercedes and bring her to justice," Buffy stated back with an almost motherly tone to her voice as she started to get back up to her feet by pushing against the shelves behind her.

"Okay…but let me do it on my own terms, I don't want to be backed into a corner, this is between me and Willow, I don't need the rest of you," Kennedy agreed softly at first before she started to demand a few situations.

"Fine, I'll let the two of you talk it out, but just don't even think about sneaking away afterwards," Buffy replied with a cold and anxious tone to her voice as she checked her watch and then pulled the edge of her shirt back down a bit.

"I'm not going anywhere until we find Mercedes and get to the bottom of this, Kristine's killer will be brought to justice, that's why I'm going with you when you look for Mercedes," Kennedy said back with a confidant but not arrogant tone to her voice as she looked straight up at Buffy before turning to the side to start to get back up to her feet.

"Why, so you can help her escape," Buffy shot back with an unconvinced look on her face as her hand moved to the doorknob.

"No, so I can make sure that you don't stake her before we find out who really attacked Kristine, and for the record…I have a feeling that I don't think you're going to like her answer," Kennedy answered with a nervous and scared look in her eyes before she brushed Buffy's hand away, turned the knob, and came out of the closet.

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After the meeting had been adjourned Wesley and Faith had drifted away from the others before finding a room on one of the above ground floors that still looked lived in, complete with a waterbed and amenities. Wesley had barely enough time to turn around and shut and lock the door, as he heard Faith turn on some music and crank the radio up, before she shoved him back hard up against the door and crushed her mouth against his. When they finished they surveyed the damage, a broken lamp that neither knew the particulars of its destruction, and clothes strewn about the room, making the entire place look like a tornado had struck.

"You wanted to go with them didn't you," Wesley said softly into Faith's ear as she had buried her face into the space in between his ear and shoulder.

"Well," Faith started to say with an unsure frown on her face as she started to tilt her head up to look Wesley in the eye before he went on.

"You wanted to help pull off the distraction, but Angel forced you to stay here and play nursemaid," Wesley postulated with a somber expression on his face as he calmly weaved his left hand through Faith's curls.

"Well…it does have its advantages…," Faith snickered back with a hungry lust in her eyes as she flashed him her trademark grin before going on, "but yeah…it would have been fun to fuck up the Immortal's plans for a change."

"It would be best if you were out there with them, you were always good at distractions, I'm sorry Faith, it's my fault that you're not," Wesley started to say back with a calm look in his eyes before Faith shifted her weight enough so that she was lying directly on top of him and looking him straight in his eyes.

"Don't blame yourself Wes, I don't," Faith said with a very serious tone to her voice and unintentionally heartfelt look in her eyes before Wesley softly caressed her cheek with his left hand and then spoke.

"I can't help it, I'm afraid that I have a tendency to accept the blame for everything, even if it's not my fault," Wesley started to reply with a very honest and serious tone to his voice before he was overcome with a fit of coughing, ending it with a particularly hard cough that caused a bit of blood to appear on his lips.

"Wesley," Faith shouted in alarm and fear at the moment that she saw the blood before scrambling off of him and over to the nightstand where there sat a box of tissues. She hurriedly grabbed the box and then rolled back around to Wesley. "Here," Faith exclaimed with a truly scared look in her eyes as she ripped out a few tissues and handed them to Wesley, who looked a little guilty accepting them before he wiped away the blood. "What the hell is going on Wes…was it me, were we to rough, your ribs don't hurt do they," Faith started to worry with a scared look on her face as she tried to dam up her fear and keep it from bubbling over and she searched for an explanation.

"No more than usual I'm afraid, as for what's going on I'm not quite sure, I've been coughing like this every so often ever since I was brought back, Cordelia and Fred never did tell me why, I guess that it's just a price that has to be paid for my resurrection," Wesley answered calmly with an unsure look on his face as he laid back and stared up at the ceiling.

"Well try not to do that again okay, I don't like to admit it but it scares the shit out of me when you cough, I'm not good at opening up to people…truly opening up, most men that I know only stick around long enough to get me into bed and the women all hate me for getting all of the attention, having a physical connection with someone is easy for me…but anything more, anything deeper, I'm not sure if I'm ready, or ever will be," Faith replied with a very scared and haunted look in her eyes and fearful expression on her face as she leaned back up against Wesley and stared at the circles on his chest that she was drawing with her fingers rather than look him in the eye.

"I know Faith, you've never quite been one to open up and talk about your emotions, but you have had good reason to keep your feelings guarded and protected, a physical relationship is easy, all it takes is two people, anything more involves real trust and honesty…both of which you and I have an equally hard time giving and accepting," Wesley said back with an equally serious look on his face as he interlaced his fingers with hers, pulling her hand away from his chest. Faith tried to say something snappy and witty back but all that she could do was bite her bottom lip and do her best to keep from tearing up at the look in his eyes. "We both want and need to be loved and trusted by someone, and we need them to love and trust us equally back, but what we're both afraid of is allowing ourselves to open up for fear of being hurt or rejected," Wesley added with a sincere look in his eyes as he pulled Faith closer to him until her forehead rested against his and they were forced to look straight and deep into each others eyes.

"I don't know…if I can give you what you deserve, I'm not," Faith softly mumbled out in reply, and had they not been so close Wesley probably would not have heard her.

"I know, but I can't ask you for anything that I'm not willing to give in return," Wesley whispered back softly with a very sincere and honest look in his eyes before Faith briefly closed her eyes as a couple of tears dropped away from her eyes and slid down his cheeks.

"So we're really going to do this, us…no holding back," Faith weakly asked with a hopeful look in her eyes but scared look on her face before Wesley answered.

"I will if you will," Wesley stated back softly before he leaned back away from her face just enough to kiss her.

"Good," Faith mumbled happily back in to his mouth after they briefly broke the kiss before she leaned back in for another kiss.

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"Maybe we should do what we did in Vienna," Spike offered with a cocky and smug grin on his face as he turned to Angel, who was busy sifting through their collection of weapons.

"I don't think so Spike, if I remember correctly didn't that end with you living it up in a fancy hotel with Dru and me needing weeks to recover from the burns," Angel grumbled back with a disapproving frown on his face as he pushed aside some axes to get down to the longswords.

"Not seeing the negative in that story Peaches," Spike quipped back with an amused smirk on his face as he casually continued to clean the sword that he had already picked out.

"Don't you ever shut up," Nina interjected with a displeased pout on her face as she walked into the room and sat down in the untaken chair in between them.

"Nope, sorry pet," Spike said softly with a half amused look on his face as he leaned back a bit and let the line shine off of one side of his sword.

"Why am I not surprised," Nina groaned softly as she rolled her eyes and shook her head before Angel spoke up.

"Is everyone ready for tonight, we have to give Willow enough time to slip the potion into the Immortal's drink, then once he takes a sip she can tell us what he is," Angel asked with an impatient frown on his face as he looked more like he was brooding than ready for a fight.

"Willow and Dawn went back to see the others and get prepared, Illyria is keeping watch upstairs, Mercedes is somewhere…probably the basement, doing God knows what, and as for Faith and Wesley…well," Nina replied with a bored expression on her face as she twiddled her thumbs a bit and looked up through her eyebrows and bangs at Angel.

"Getting acquainted," Angel gruffly replied with a confused and apprehensive tone to his voice as he half looked at Nina but couldn't bring himself to look towards Spike for fear of the look on his grandchilde's face.

"Ah come one Angel…grow a pair already, I know you're slow to this type of thing and all but…damn," Spike interjected with a highly amused grin on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and half looked up at Angel before he went back to admiring the sword in his hands.

"Can we change the subject please," Angel stated with an uncomfortable shiver as he held back from snapping Spike's neck to start to search through the pile for something that Illyria might like to use as a weapon.

"Fine…here's something that I've been meaning to talk to you two about," Nina started to say with an odd grin on her face as she seemed to perk up at the idea before Angel and Spike shared a look that seemed to suggest that both thought that they might have bitten off more than they could chew with the possibilities of what Nina could want to talk about. "Do either of you…you know…miss it," Nina finally asked softly, almost in a stammer, as she looked from Angel first and then over to Spike.

"It…gonna have to be a little bit more specific pet," Spike wondered softly with a confused look on his face as he briefly stopped sharpening his sword.

"The old days, you know…being evil, not caring what you did or who you hurt," Nina asked with a curious look on her face as she chose not to reply to Spike's comment with a sarcastic or witty remark and instead simply answer his question. Angel and Spike sent a careful glance towards each other before Spike shrugged his shoulders and was about to answer when Angel beat him to it.

"I hate to admit it…but…at times, yeah, I miss it," Angel calmly replied with an almost self loathing tone to his voice as he hung his head and continued to sift through the pile of weapons.

"Not me, being one of the white hats is to much fun," Spike added with an immature grin on his face before he looked over at Nina and saw that she wasn't buying a second of it, Angel either.

"Oh really," Nina shot back with a daring frown on her face as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms and legs, making sure in her actions that Spike knew that she wasn't joking and wasn't going to let it drop.

"Okay I miss it…but only sometimes, both sides have their advantages, happy now," Spike grumbled back with a frustrated and almost childlike scowl on his face as if he were a young boy that had been told that he couldn't play with his favorite toy.

"That'll do Spike…for now, but Angel…you seem a bit…uncomfortable with the thought of Wesley and Faith being together, I would have thought that you'd be happy for them," Nina replied with a slight nod of her head and sarcastic smirk on her face before her face grew calm as she turned to Angel.

"I…I am, or at least I think that I am, I don't know…let's just say that it's complicated between those two, far to complicated to explain right now, let's just say that they have some issues to work through and neither one of them exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to relationships, I guess that I'm just afraid that it'll go bad, they'll both be hurt, and all of our plans will go up in flames," Angel slowly replied with an apprehensive tone to his voice as he kept his back turned to Nina and Spike and steadied his gaze on the line of sunlight filtering into the room as the sun started to go down outside.

"That could happen, or this could be the start of something special, who knows…in a few years there could be a little Wesley or Faith running around, wanting uncle Angel or Spike to tell them a story," Nina replied with a sly grin on her face as she uncrossed her arms, stood up, and then walked over to Angel.

"I'm sorry Nina, but I can't see that happening," Angel glumly replied as he started to half turn around before Nina laid a hand on his shoulder and made him turn fully around to make him look at her.

"I can't really see Faith as the mothering type," Spike said with a pretty confidant tone to his voice as he laid his sword down and slide off of the table that he had been sitting on.

"Wesley doesn't seem like the fathering type either, I think that the best that we can hope for here is that whatever happens they stay friends and no one gets killed," Angel added softly as he shook his head and patted Nina on the shoulder.

"You may be right, but then again…sometimes all that some people need to do well is a chance," Nina observed with a seemingly knowing smirk on her face, one that both Angel and Spike puzzled after, before she turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

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"He will see you now," One of the assistants said with a hurried and impatient frown on his face as he slowly opened the door and let Robin in. After breaking things off with Faith he had voluntarily traveled through Africa, searching for an old legend about a demon with the ability to grant souls to those who pass his challenges. After coming up empty, but fully admitting that he knew that there were many that he spoke to that knew more than they were telling, he had only returned to Rome when Roger had contacted him about an assignment.

"Thank you…Roger, nice to see you again," Robin said softly at first as he half bowed his head to the assistant before he walked into Roger's office and shook hands with the old watcher.

"Likewise Robin, I only wish that our meeting was under better circumstances," Roger replied with a nervous look on his face as he sat back down in his chair after shaking hands.

"You said on the phone that there were some new developments on the Angel front," Robin offered with a curious look on his face before he waved off the tea that Roger offered him.

"Unfortunately that is the case, after reports of his demise surfaced we surmised that his threat was finally over but we were wrong, several days ago he and his cohorts, one of which was my failure of a son, interrupted a gathering of the city's elite and nearly blew up the entire building, several people died and millions of dollars in damages…truly terrible," Roger explained with a somber frown on his face as he stood up and then walked over to the large window in his office, clasping his hands together behind his back as he stared out into the early evening sky.

"Faith," Robin asked with a slightly concerned look on his face as he looked up from studying some of the papers on Roger's desk.

"I am sorry Robin, but when faced with the opportunity she…betrayed us yet again, she sided with Angel and his accomplices and helped them to escape, God only knows where they are right now…but she is not the reason that I called you here," Roger answered with a grim frown on his face as he kept staring straight out into the early evening sky.

"You want me to kill Angel," Robin asked with a slowly growing level of impatience in his voice as he was a busy man and didn't want to get the run around.

"In due time perhaps, no actually I called you here because one of The Immortal's lawyers was brutally attack…pretty girl, so unfortunate, she died from her injuries just a few hours ago, we have learned that her injuries were caused by a vampire named Mercedes, we know very little about her other than the fact that she worked for the Immortal as well, apparently he did not know her as well as he thought," Roger replied with a nervous and sad look on his face as he finally turned back into the room to look straight at Robin, who slowly rose from his chair.

"Any word on her whereabouts," Robin asked with an interested look in his eyes as he slid around Roger's desk and then joined him to stand beside the window.

"Nothing yet, but we have reason to believe that she is still in Rome, I would have given this assignment to Rupert and his people…however I am beginning to suspect that someone on their team has been compromised, and to top it all off instead of attacking Angelus at the party Miss Summers tried to reason with him, she is letting her emotions control her…endangering us all," Roger said back with a frustrated tone to his voice, one that a person would use when they were speaking about someone that they used to have a lot of confidence in but after recent events they were forced to change their opinion for the worse.

"Alright, so I find this Mercedes and bring her in," Robin started to say with a calm look on his face as Roger slowly nodded his head before he continued, "and if I should run into Faith or your son?"

"She had her chance to redeem herself and she chose not to take it, she is of no further use to us, if something terrible should happen to her during this mission…it would be most…unfortunate, if you catch my meaning," Roger replied with a composed look on his face as he turned back to look out at the early evening sky, not a trace of emotion in his voice.

"What if Wesley does not share that idea, Faith isn't exactly the brightest slayer around, perhaps she and your son," Robin started to say with a curious tone to his voice before he trailed off, not thinking that he needed to continue for Roger to get the idea what he was asking.

"If that is the case then he is even more foolish then I ever imagined, but no matter, if he gets in your way you are authorized to use whatever means necessary to get past him and obtain your objective," Roger said back with a confidant look on his face and tone to his voice before he turned on his heel and slowly walked out of the office, never once looking back at Robin.

END OF CHAPTER 21

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for reading this story, there's still a ways to go and a lot to happen. Pairings ideas are still welcome and feel free to suggest story ideas and the like, as always reviews are appreciated.


	22. Lemonaide Into Lemons

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 22-LEMONAIDE INTO LEMONS**

After Angel and Spike had left with Illyria Faith had decided to patrol the immediate are surrounding the large house that they had commandeered. Wesley had been against it as he said that any outward sign that anyone lived there would bring too much unwanted attention to the area. The two had managed to keep the brewing argument calm until the thought of past sins had been unwittingly brought up. Wesley's torture at Faith's hands didn't take to long after that to be brought up and only Nina rushing into the room with a sword in her hands stopped the two from possibly attacking each other. Nina could see the look of hurt and pain in both of their eyes but she could also see that whatever it was that they were fighting about they were just using it as a cover to hide and block off their true feelings. After the interruption Wesley had calmed down a bit and asked Faith to stay and let them talk it out. But she was hot enough that she wasn't in the mood and stormed out of the room, saying that she needed some air. Several silent moments later Nina started to lay a reassuring hand on Wesley's shoulder but he shrugged her off and sulked out of the room through a different door than the one that Faith had left through.

"Who are we kidding, it'll never work," Faith grumbled softly to herself with an angry scowl on her face as she slid off of the street and into the backyard behind the building. Ever since their first kiss she had known that their tempers would inevitably lead to a fight. She had actually expected it to have happened sooner though and if she were totally honest she would admit that she wasn't happy about it and knew that they had both said some things that they weren't proud of.

"Now what's a pretty little thing like you doing out here in the cold," A giddy voice snarled from somewhere behind Faith before she pun around as fast as she could, mentally cursing herself for allowing someone to be able to sneak up on her.

"Having a smoke," Faith calmly replied with a confidant and strong tone to her voice as she showed no hint of fear and kept her cool.

"You should know better than to lie Ms. Lehane, it doesn't suit you," The Immortal said with an almost scolding and condescending tone to his voice as he slid his hands into his pockets and shook his head sadly.

"What…how do you," Faith started to say with a very surprised expression on her face before she realized just how outnumbered she was with several large demons seemingly materializing out of the darkness behind the Immortal.

"It's my business to know, you didn't think that I managed to live this long without knowing my enemies did you…kill her, then the others…especially the watcher," The Immortal calmly replied at first with a confidant smirk on his face before he started to half turn away just as Faith spoke up.

"Over my dead body," Faith growled back with an angry, and slightly scared look in her eyes, before she started forward towards the Immortal. She was about to draw out the knife that she held in her back pocket when he whirled around and the last thing that she saw before an immense feeling of pain in her stomach was a flash of metal.

"That was the idea Faith," The Immortal scoffed with a mocking grin on his face as he brushed some lint off of his jacket and then turned and walked away.

"Faith," Wesley nearly screamed out as he also saw the flash of light, but being back further away he saw that it was a knife before the Immortal threw it. After screaming he tore out of the house and nearly stumbled down the steps as he went forward in a mad dash to get to Faith. He scrambled to her side just as she looked down, saw the knife sticking out of her body, and then lifted a blood covered hand up to eye level, looking very sickly and surprised by what had just happened. With at first words dying on her lips she turned to Wesley and stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth that had no words to fill it.

"Wes," Faith finally managed to state softly with a very concerned look on her face as her legs began to weaken and she wobbled a bit before wincing badly in pain. "It…hurts," Faith added through gritted teeth as her legs finally gave way and she unceremoniously slumped down to her knees before falling back on the damp grass into Wesley's arms.

"It'll be alright…just stay calm, bloody hell," Wesley started to say with a reassuring tone of voice even though the fear in his eyes betrayed his true feelings while he clamped a hand down over the wound and debated whether or not to pull the knife out immediately or leave it in for a moment.

"Stop it Wes, you're a terrible liar," Faith snickered back with a sarcastic cough, that brought more blood to her lips, as she tried to both remain conscious and to keep from tearing up.

"Just try to," Wesley started to say with a scared silly look in his eyes before one of the demons got impatient and slammed the end of its club straight into Wesley's chest in an upward almost golf swing. The force of the club cracked Wesley's sternum with a loud crunch before he was sent flying back into the house through one of the windows, seeing stars everywhere as the glass exploded around him. His world almost went black as he crashed through a pair of sawhorses.

"Wes," Faith grunted out softly in desperation as she tried to lift herself up off of the grass before her strength gave out and she flopped back down onto her back.

"What's this, a naughty little girl with a knife stuck in her gut…hmm, wonder if she'll scream," A sickly looking demon stated with a delighted and excited grin on his face as he stepped out from behind one of the bigger demons and walked over to Faith, kneeling down beside her. "Let's find out shall we," He added with a sinister grin on his face before he reached down, grabbed the hilt of the knife and then gave it a good hard jerk to first one side and then the other. Faith's body was lit on fire from the inside out as the pain coursed through her body. She screamed out into the night air before the blood that forced its way up her throat drowned her screams out.

"Heh, they always scream," The demon that had struck Wesley joked with a giddy grin on his face before the sickly demon sharply pulled the knife from Faith's stomach and then licked some of the blood off of the blade.

"Ah slayer…twenty two…twenty three years old, good vintage," The sickly demon chimed back with a delighted smile on his face as he stared straight back down at Faith, who was doing her best to drag herself away from the scene with one hand and apply some pressure to her wound with the other.

"Get away from her," Wesley growled with a furious sneer on his face before he emptied both barrels of his shotgun straight into the chest of the sickly demon, killing it instantly. Faith barely registered the death as the body flopped to the blood stained earth beside her.

"Wesley no," Nina shouted with a scared look on her face as she flung the door open and then ran across the room in an effort to try and keep Wesley from climbing out of the window while reloading the shotgun. Blood ran from several wounds on his body and there was also a fair amount of blood dribbling out of his nose and around the edges of his lips. One arm seemed to perhaps be broken as he used it to cradle the shotgun though he could only hold the weapon loosely.

"Get out of here Nina, find Angel and get him and the others back here," Wesley angrily shouted back with a furious scowl on his face before he tripped on the sill and went face first down into the garden, getting a face full of dirt in the process.

"But," Nina started to argue with an overwhelmed tone to her voice before one of the demons leapt off of the shoulders of one of the bigger demons and then straight towards her.

"Die bitch," The jumping demon exclaimed with a daring grin on his face just before he crashed into Nina so hard that the two went tumbling backwards into the room, breaking chairs and anything else in their path.

"Faith," Wesley stammered out with a very pained grimace on his face as he lifted his head up and began to crawl towards Faith as she tilted her head back.

"Wes," Faith weakly mumbled back as she fought to keep her eyes open before she reached out and took a hold of Wesley's hand, both hands bathed red in the blood of their owners.

"Ah so touching, to bad you're going to be dead in about two seconds," The large demon that had first struck Wesley stated with a confidant look on his face as he looked straight down at Wesley and Faith, as the former fumbled for the shotgun with his free hand, each movement sent lightning bolts of pain through his body. Seeing this the demon picked its club back up, reared back and prepared to swing down the deathblow. Just as it was about to strike it stopped suddenly and jerked forward a bit.

"Huh," Nina started to wonder with a panicked look on her face as she was halfway out of the window before she got her answer.

"You first," A very determined and angry Angel growled as he drove the point of his blade all of the way through the demons body and then stayed still as it slid off of it, collapsing dead to the ground beside Wesley and Faith.

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He hadn't known exactly why when she walked back into the building but Xander somehow had a feeling that he needed to follow Willow. He did his best to stealthily follow her out of the entryway and through the long hallway lined with offices before Kennedy rounded a corner and reluctantly pulled Willow aside. Through the small window in the closed door Xander watched as Kennedy slowly and deliberately explained something serious to Willow. He could see the usually strong and confident Kennedy appear more like someone who thought that they would be killed the moment that they said their business. His hand hesitated on the knob as he saw Willow go even more pale than usual, and he could tell that she was struggling to stay in control by the force with which she was raking her fingernails across the pockets of her jeans. She turned just enough to one side for a split second, and from that Xander thought that he saw the edges of her eyes beginning to turn black. But almost as quickly as he thought that he saw her calm down and let out a breath before saying something softly to Kennedy before turning on her heel and walking out of the room, barely noticing that Xander had been eavesdropping the entire time.

"Hey Willow wait," Xander started to say with a concerned look on his face as he gave a tearful Kennedy one last look and then started to go after Willow before he was stopped by Buffy.

"We should leave her alone for awhile, she needs some time to think," Buffy interjected with a serious and worried look on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and frowned in the direction that Willow had gone in.

"Why Buffy, what's going on," Dawn asked with a confused look on her face before Xander could speak up.

"Come on, I'll tell you guys while we walk, I need to talk to Giles about something and it's better if I don't have to repeat myself," Buffy replied with a nervous and overworked sigh as her shoulders slumped a bit and she turned and walked off towards Giles' office, with Dawn and Xander walking closely behind her. Neither Dawn nor Xander said a word until after they arrived at Giles' office and Buffy explained that she had bad news.

"Okay Buffy, so spill, what's going on…why is Willow so upset," Xander asked with a determined and worried expression on his face as he shut the door behind them.

"Well…you know that we were supposed to investigate Kristine Johansson's death right…well up until that injury Kennedy…she and Kennedy were having an affair," Buffy replied softly with a loathing tone to her voice as she started to explain away before Giles stopped her.

"And you know this," Giles started to ask with a concerned look on his face before he let his voice trail off as Buffy picked up the slack.

"I know all of this because Kennedy told me after Kristine died, she admitted to the affair with Kristine and another of the Immortal's people," Buffy continued with a glum expression on her face as she sank down into one of the more comfortable chairs in Giles' office.

"Boy, this just keeps getting better and better," Xander grumbled with a bitter and unhappy scowl on his face as he couldn't stay calm thinking about what Willow must be going through.

"Oh…but it gets better," Buffy started to say with an anxious look of suspense on her face as she sat up in her chair and turned to Xander.

"Of course it does…we love the troubles getting worse," Xander groaned with an unhappy pout on his face as he flopped down onto the couch in the office and stared up at the ceiling.

"This other person that Kennedy was having the affair with…well it's Mercedes, the vampire that might have been the one that attacked Kristine," Buffy replied with a nervous and unsure smile on her face, as she started off looking in Xander's direction, before Giles spoke up.

"Oh really, you don't sound to sure of that, did Kennedy say something that leads you to believe that this Mercedes woman was not the one that attacked Miss Johansson," Giles asked with a deep in thought look on his face as he leaned back in his chair a bit and took his glasses off.

"Well…it wasn't really what she said Giles, it was more…how she said it, I can usually tell when someone's lying to me…I don't think that she was, I think that she truly believes that someone other than Mercedes," Buffy started to answer with a concerned look on her face as she looked back and forth between Giles and Dawn, who was busying herself with pruning one of the large plants in Giles' office, before she was interrupted as the door opened wide.

"Was the one that committed the crime, honestly Buffy…I would have thought that by now you would have realized that no matter how well you think that you know someone they can always surprise you," Robin interjected with a calm but warm tone to his voice and a gentle smile on his face as he walked into the office wearing a dark suit and tie, looking more ready for a power lunch than demon fighting.

"You mean like you surprised Faith by swapping spit with the first new slayer that'd," Dawn started to grumble with an unhappy scowl on her face as she crunched up one of the dead leaves in her hand before Giles stopped her.

"That's enough Dawn, Robin…what are you doing here, I thought that you were in South America," Giles sharply exclaimed at first to Dawn before he calmed himself down and continued with a polite tone to his voice as he stood up and shook Robin's hand. Buffy smiled and nodded her head slightly in reply and Xander grinned and waved. Only Dawn gave him a less than kind greeting as she closed herself off, stopped listening to what was being said, and decided to instead focus her attention on Robin, trying her best to remember everything about him. She didn't know what it was but she had a hunch that something wasn't quite right about him, as if it was more than a bit suspicious that he had just showed up out of the blue. She became so obsessed with this mission that it finally took Giles laying his hand on her shoulder to snap her out of her stupor to come to find that her cell phone was ringing. She embarrassingly excused herself and stepped out into the hallway. At first she was excited as she saw who it was that was calling her, but the moment that Spike's voice emanated from the small device she knew that it wasn't good.

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"How did this happen, how did they find us," A nearly seething Angel demanded with a very upset tone to his voice as he angrily paced back and forth out in the hallway as Faith had been rushed to surgery and Wesley wasn't far behind her. Only their timely arrival back at the safe house had given either of the two any chance of living. Wesley's number of broken ribs had only gone up, and some that had only just started to heal were broken again. His other injuries were just as grave as from all of the blood at the scene Angel had a hard time figuring out just how injured his best friend really was. Faith hadn't been conscious since well before the fight had ended. The demons that had been left behind had liked to talk big but the moment that the Immortal left and Angel showed back up with Illyria and Spike, the tide quickly turned. Illyria said something about no one hurting Wesley and went through the demons like a force of nature.

"I don't…know, Wesley and Faith were just talking, then they were fighting, Faith went outside to cool off, and then like two seconds later all hell broke loose," Nina stammered out with an overwhelmed look on her face as she fought back tears despite her own injuries. Angel sharply turned back to growl at her but only got half of it out before the look in her eyes shamed him and he instead reached out to comfort her. "No…don't, I know I screwed up okay, I just need some time to think," She stated softly with a confused and scared look on her face as a few tears fell while she pushed Angel away and then walked off down the first empty hallway that she could find.

"But…Nina," Angel started to say with a confused and worried look on his face before a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"You certainly have a way with women," Spike interjected with a humorous tone to his voice at first as Angel whirled around ready to fight before he saw from the look on Spike's face that he was only using his dark humor to try to lighten the mood.

"Real cute Spike, why don't you make yourself useful and figure out what happened, and where the hell Mercedes is," Angel grumbled back with an unhappy scowl on his face as he balled his hands up into fists and tried to keep from strangling his grandchilde.

"I would but splitting up wouldn't be to wise right about now, as for Mercedes…she split even before we left, she could be anywhere by now," Spike replied with a serious look on his face as he in turn looked down the hallway first one way and then another, purposefully avoiding making eye contact with Angel.

"Perfect…just perfect, we leave for five seconds and the whole world goes to hell," Angel growled with an angry scowl on his face as he threw his hands up in defeat before turning around and starting to stomp off.

"Maybe you should go find Nina, she didn't look like she was doing to well," Spike added softly without the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice as he leaned back up against the wall and lifted his gaze up to meet Angel's, if only briefly.

"She…she said that she wanted to be alone, there are things that she has to think about," Angel tried to reply with a nervous and awkward frown on his face as he wasn't sure that he exactly liked talking about his relationship with Nina with Spike.

"The bird's had a big night, probably came pretty close to getting snuffed out, she's probably off somewhere quiet and dark to have a good long cry, once she's done that she'll want to see you," Spike said with a helpful without being helpful expression on his face and tone to his voice as he slid his hands into his pockets before Angel spoke up.

"When did you become," Angel started to ask with a surprised and confused look on his face as he took a step back towards Spike but was stopped by Spike's reply.

"You watch as much daytime tv as I have…you pick up a few things, now go…I'll stay here and make sure that everything's on the up and up, oh and if you see big blue, steer her this way, with Wesley hurt as badly as he is she's likely to go off if some poor bloke even tries to talk to her," Spike replied with a serious look on his face as he shuffled his feet a bit and shrugged his shoulders before smirking slightly.

"Okay…just don't break anything before I get back, and don't make any decisions without me," Angel started to say softly with an unsure frown on his face before Spike nodded his head and waved his grandsire off. Spike watched Angel walk down the hallway and turn a corner before he pushed off of the wall and started to turn around before it happened.

"Spike," Dawn exclaimed with an almost frantic look on her face as after speaking she ran forward up to him and gazed at him up and down with a look in her eyes that told him that she was relieved that he was still in one piece.

"What happened," Willow asked softly, almost out of breath, as she did her best to keep up with Dawn and then catch her breath.

"What's it look like, Buffy's boyfriend tried to tie up a few loose ends, skewered Faith with a knife…and used ole English for a piñata," Spike replied with what he tried to portray as an attitude that he could care less, but both Willow and Dawn could tell by the fact that he didn't look at either one of them when he answered that his outer attitude was a lie.

"The Immortal, but why would he," Willow began to ask with a confused and concerned look on her face as she finally caught her breath before Spike shook his head and answered before she was finished.

"Because he's planning something big, and he can't have anyone getting in the way, messing things up, only problem now is that Wesley and Faith are out of commission for awhile, Nina's a wreck, Illyria's on the warpath, Angel's shirty, and as for Mercedes…well we seem to have misplaced her," Spike answered without the slightest hint of emotion in his voice at first before a sarcastic edge filled his speech.

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"Where are you going," Diane asked with a confused look on her face as she pushed the door open and found Audrey making herself look presentable. Everything would have looked normal except for the fact that the older woman could see that the pink haired slayer was armed to the teeth at the same time.

"To see him," Audrey replied with a serious look on her face as she continued to get ready, not even lifting her gaze enough to look back at her friend.

"You're not going to get anywhere close to him with all of those weapons, unless you have an appointment you're going to have to leave them behind…all of them, you can survive without weapons for a few hours," Diane added with a confidant look on her face as she slowly nodded her head while walking fully into the room and shutting the door behind her. She almost laughed when Audrey looked up at her with a pleading look in her eyes and a scared look on her face.

"Mm…yeah you're right, I just hope that he can give me what I'm looking for," Audrey replied softly with a nervous, anxious, and reluctant glint in her eyes as she deemed herself finished and stood up.

"Oh yeah, and just what is that," Diane asked with a concerned look on her face as she watched Audrey divest herself of all of the weapons that she had packed on earlier.

"My life back, or at least a reason not to snap his neck," Audrey grumbled back softly with at first an almost nostalgic smile on her face before her expression grew cold and bitter before she left the room quickly, not allowing Diane to say anything in return.

END OF CHAPTER 22

General Notes-Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, I'm only three reviews away from tying my record for most reviews and four away from breaking it. Hopefully it'll happen with this chapter. Thoughts and opinions are still welcome about where the story should go from here, I have my thoughts but I like to hear all of yours as well. As to the fight we all knew that it had to happen sometime with those two hotheads, and at the end of this chapter Faith is in surgery half-dead, and Wesley isn't much better. I'm thinking about finding a girlfriend for Andrew…any ideas. Yeah Faith was stabbed earlier on the show but I just didn't think that here she'd let The Immortal get close enough to actually stab her so I had him throw the knife. Once again thanks to everyone for all of the hits and reviews.


	23. Healing Dreams

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 23-HEALING DREAMS**

She didn't have a clue where she was. She had heard one of the members of the new watchers council droll on and on about something that seemed to explain this. But for the life of her she couldn't quite remember what it was that they said. Cursing herself for her short attention span Faith shook her head and gently pushed open a door that suddenly appeared in front of her. She looked around and only saw what appeared to be a completely empty bar. She laughed at her misfortune and then turned to leave.

"Leaving so soon Faith," An eerily familiar voice said softly with an almost amused tone to it as Faith whirled back around to face Wesley sitting at the bar, a drink in his hands.

"Wesley, what are you doing here, where are we," Faith exclaimed with a confused, but somewhat relieved tone to her voice, as she walked back into the bar and stopped just in front of Wesley.

"You tell me, this is your dream," Wesley replied with a relaxed shrug of his shoulders before he emptied the shot glass in one gulp and set it loudly back down on the bar.

"I'm…dreaming," Faith stuttered out with a surprised and confused look on her face as she scrunched her face up a bit and looked first at Wesley and then back around the bar.

"Didn't we already cover this," Wesley replied with an almost bored tone to his voice as Faith had turned enough so that her back was to him.

"But…I don't understand, the fight," Faith declared with an anxious glint in her eyes as she lowered her gaze and half turned back to look at Wesley over her shoulder.

"Got pretty nasty didn't it," Wesley shot back with a sly grin on his face before he got up, walked around behind the bar and refilled his shot glass.

"That's an understatement," Faith joked back with a forced grin on her face as she tried to make light of the subject but found it hard.

"Why do you suppose that was," Wesley asked with an impish smirk on his face, one that Faith wanted nothing more than to smack off, before he downed the second shot.

"You were being a prick," Faith offered up with a weak smile of sarcasm on her face as she hopped up onto one of the barstools and leaned forward a bit.

"No…I think it was because I struck a nerve," Wesley started to say back with a very calm but yet serious expression on his face as he set the shot glass back down onto the top of the bar and stared right at Faith.

"I don't know what you're," Faith cut in sharply with an unhappy pout on her face as she folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

"I think you do, underneath all of that cold and icy exterior of yours Faith is a child that never go to grow up, a girl that never got to dream, you keep your heart locked up tighter than Fort Knox, the only problem with that is of course that when someone special comes along," Wesley stated with a relaxed smile on his face as he took out a few more shot glasses from underneath the bar and filled them, all the while Faith tried to stay looking away but in the end had to admit defeat and turned fully back towards him.

"Someone special like you," Faith mumbled softly with an innocent and completely honest look in her eyes, as her usual sarcastic tone was nowhere to be found

"Possibly, but whatever way you look at this, you're still blaming yourself for what happened," Wesley replied with a shrug of his shoulders before he picked up one of the shot glasses and started to hand it to Faith.

"Shouldn't I be, I tortured you Wesley, for over an hour, I liked it, what kind of a person does something like that and likes it…I'll tell you, a monster…I am a monster, I don't deserve," Faith muttered back with a very self loathing expression on her face as she dipped her chin down a bit towards her chest and stared straight at the shot glass as she took it from him, silently wondering if it were possible to drown in that small amount of liquid.

"Stop right there, you don't get to make that call, you don't get to say what you are, you might think that you're a monster but believe me you're not, far from it," Wesley shot back with a very firm and determined tone to his voice and look in his eyes as he laid a hand directly over the shot glass and enveloped Faith's hand with his own, getting her to at least look up.

"Oh, and then just what am I then," Faith asked with a nervous and scared look on her face as she made hesitant eye contact with Wesley.

"A woman that needs to let go of her past, of course it was wrong of you to torture me, but you weren't the only one that screwed up that night, if I had been a better watcher to you it never would have happened, I failed you Faith," Wesley started to reply with a sincere look in his eyes as he reached out and pushed Faith's chin back up enough so that she was forced to look him in the eye.

"Heh, now who's blaming themselves for something that was out of their control," Faith chuckled at first as a tear came to her eye before she pulled back, downed the shot glass and grinned.

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"Something about this stinks Xander, Kristine was fine when we were in the room with her…except of course being hooked up to all of those machines, then she's dead, Kennedy admits to an affair, and Robin shows up out of the blue claiming to just be back to offer his support," Buffy grumbled out softly with an overwhelmed and overworked frown on her face as she and Xander strolled calmly down the sidewalk in the early morning sun.

"You're thinking that his showing up is part of something bigger," Xander replied with an impatient frown on his face as he stepped to the side a bit just long enough to sidestep a lamppost.

"I know that he lied to us about where he was and why he's back, now we just have to figure out who brought him back and why," Buffy answered back with a concerned and serious frown on her face as the two stopped at the corner and waited for an opportunity to cross.

"All the while still solving the mystery of who attacked Miss Johansson and then killed her at the hospital, no rest for the wicked…only yeah…we're not wicked," Xander said with a less than enthusiastic grin on his face as the opportunity finally arose and they crossed the street.

"Speaking of which, did you see where Dawn slipped off to, I haven't seen her since she got that phone call," Buffy asked with a worried and confused frown on her face as she turned and lightly perused the store window with her eyes.

"Yeah, I haven't seen Willow since then either, you think they know something that we don't," Xander replied with a stumped expression on his face before he stopped walking and tapped Buffy on the shoulder.

"I'd say that it's a pretty good bet," A sarcastic voice stated from behind them before they turned around to face a fashionably dressed Gwen.

"Oh really, and you are," Buffy replied with an unimpressed and combative scowl on her face as she instinctively stepped in front of Xander.

"I'm afraid that introductions are going to have to wait for another time, do you know where Angel is or not, and don't bother wasting my time trying to trick me into telling you why I'm looking for him or anything like that, I'm not a naïve slayer little girl that believes whatever her boyfriend tells her," Gwen replied sharply with a bored and equally combative scowl on her face as she started to tug off one of her gloves. After getting l.i.s.a. her life had become a whole lot easier, though every once in a while she'd remove the small gadget and have some fun. Now was such a time.

"Of course not, we wouldn't dream of trying to lie to you, would we Buffy," Xander stated with an almost mocking smirk on his face before he grinned proudly and nodded to Buffy.

"Of course not Xander, but for the record I don't have a clue where Angel is, and if I did I sure as hell wouldn't tell you," Buffy replied with a serious and impatient scowl on her face before her frown turned upside down and turned into a proud and confidant smile.

"That's what I thought that you'd say, I think that you should rethink that idea before things get messy, I'm not a patient woman," Gwen replied with an almost bored tone to her voice before she finished tugging off her left glove and then delighted in the looks of shock and surprise on Buffy and Xander's faces when she arched a few jolts of electricity in between her fingertips.

"Okay…now that's not right," Xander stuttered out with a scared edge to his voice as he frantically looked to Buffy.

"Easy, we won't get anything out of them if you fry them, sorry about my friend here, she tends to be a little high strung," Kate interjected with a nervous look on her face as she hurried up to the trio and glared over at Gwen.

"What are you doing here, I was doing fine on my own," Gwen grumbled out sharply under her breath with an angry scowl on her face as she leaned in close to Kate.

"Okay people…remember me, I'm not going to tell either of you anything about Angel until I know why you want to find him, who are you," Buffy declared with a very determined look on her face and tone to her voice as she readied herself for a fight, but not what happened next.

"His son," Connor admitted without the slightest hint of emotion in his voice as he stepped out of one of the shops that Buffy had just glanced at, leaving both Xander and Buffy gasping in disbelief and confusion.

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"Any change," Nina asked softly with a tired look on her face as she slowly approached Spike as he stayed still near the door to the room that Wesley had been given after getting some treatment.

"That's a big negative pet, he's been out cold since we brought him in here, doctor's got him pumped so full of drugs that it wouldn't matter if he was awake, he wouldn't make any sense," Spike answered softly with a nervous shrug of his shoulders before at the end he lifted his head up to lock gazes with Nina.

"So what do we do now, the Immortal found us at the safe house, it's not going to take him very long to find us here, and Wesley and Faith are in no condition to go anywhere, and won't be for days…weeks," Nina exclaimed with an overwhelmed and scared look on her face as she bit her bottom lip and steadied herself against tearing up.

"Got that part covered, Red's working her mojo, anyone that enters their rooms forgets what they look like the moment that they leave, that should last for a while, hopefully at least long enough for all of this to be over, then they'll have all the time that they need to heal," Spike said back with a well hidden nervous tone to his voice as he nodded his head down towards the end of the hallway where Willow and Dawn were quietly talking about something.

"I hope you're right, but I'm just afraid that we won't be safe anywhere, at least not until the Immortal is dead," Nina replied with a scared and skittish look on her face as she began to walk back and forth in front of Spike, trying to stay calm.

"And then what, we do this and there's going to be an awful lot of pissed of people wanting our heads, hate to break it to ya pet, but knowing our luck it'll only get harder after this," Spike said back with a somber and almost wickedly sarcastic grin on his face as he shook his head and tried not to laugh at the look of fear that washed across Nina's face.

"How do you do it Spike, how do you keep fighting when you know that no matter what you do, how much you accomplish, in the end it doesn't mean a damn thing," Nina asked softly with an almost heartbroken look in her eyes

"Beats me pet, but what else is there, lay down and give up…sorry, ain't gonna happen, not in this lifetime," Spike answered with a calmer but yet still a bit joking tone to his voice as he pushed off of the wall and stood up straight, apparently trying to cheer Nina up a bit.

"Stop it Spike, you're just as worried about them as we are," Dawn grumbled with an unhappy and scared look on her face, though she was trying to appear sarcastically humorous.

"No I'm not," Spike mumbled back softly with a grim frown on his face before he couldn't help but soften his look when Dawn grinned up at him.

"Has anyone seen Mercedes," Willow asked with a reserved expression on her face, so much so that Spike was secretly wondering if she wasn't planning something.

"Not since they got attacked why, you're not planning on skinning her are you," Spike replied with at first a slight shrug of his shoulders before he fully turned to Willow and looked straight at her.

"Of course not, I just have to know…why," Willow began to say back with a powerful look in her eyes before her countenance softened and she looked lost and alone.

"Why what," Nina asked softly with a confused look on her face as she uncrossed her arms and walked up beside Spike just as Willow spoke.

"Why her, why Kennedy…was it all just a joke, something that they thought would be funny, I have to know before I can make any decisions," Willow answered with a serious but unsure look on her face before she glanced down at the ground and slid her hands into her back pockets.

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"Come on Faith, tell me, what's really bothering you," Wesley asked with a bored smirk on his face as he set out several more shot glasses on top of the bar and began to slowly fill them.

"Nothing…though it'll be you pretty soon if you don't stop asking me so many questions," Faith grouched back with an unhappy scowl on her face in between emptying a couple more shot glasses.

"Sorry luv…but I can't do that, like I said, this is your dream, I'm just here to guide you through it," Wesley replied with an impish grin on his face before he finished filling the shot glasses and then set the bottle down beside them.

"Right, well then why don't you just guide me out of it so that I can wake up and snap that sorry son of a bitch's neck that stabbed me," Faith grumbled back with an impatient scowl on her face as she gritted her teeth with her mouth closed at how frustrating this dream was becoming.

"That wouldn't be a good idea I'm afraid," Wesley said back with an honest look on his face as he walked back around the bar and walked towards Faith. "You're not a monster, evil only begets evil, you kill him and you will have lost everything that you've worked so hard to achieve these past few years," Wesley added with a sincere look of concern on his face as he slid up onto the barstool next to Faith.

"You don't get it do you, I am a monster, no amount of your bullshit is going to change that, nothing can ever change that, I am a monster and deserve what I get," Faith snapped back sharply before she whirled her head away and downed a couple more shot glasses.

"You haven't even begun to get what you deserve," Wesley started to say with an eerie tone to his voice as he reached over and grabbed a hold of Faith's wrist, his touch almost searing her skin on contact.

"Hey, let go of me," Faith exclaimed with a surprised and angry scowl on her face as she snapped her head back around to glare at Wesley. Her heart nearly stopped when she looked into his eyes. Somehow, someway, they were exactly the same as they had been that night in Los Angeles, the night where she had almost lost herself to the darkness within her.

"Not until you face the truth Faith," Wesley replied with an almost delighted smile on his face and tone to his voice before he tightened his grip on her arm and the pain only increased, causing her to shout in pain.

"What truth," Faith snapped back sharply, now fully pissed off and ready for anything as long as got Wesley to let go of her arm, before trying to wrench it free to no avail.

"That you're not a monster, that you should stop blaming yourself for every bad thing that's happened in your life, you didn't get your mother hooked on alcohol and drugs, you didn't get your first watcher killed, it's not your fault that you tortured me," Wesley started to state clearly back with a steadily growing tenor to his voice as he kept tightening his grip before Faith snapped when he got to the part about his torture.

"Shut up, you bastard, I hate you," Faith screamed out at the top of her lungs as she snapped, before turning the tables on Wesley and slamming her shoulder into his chest, knocking them both to the floor, though he kept his vice like grip on her wrist.

"No you don't," Wesley managed to get out before Faith snarled in anger and clenched her free hand tightly into a fist.

"Yes I do," Faith shouted back at him at the top of her lungs before she hit him, first once and then again, each time repeating the phrase and increasing the strength of the hit as she went.

"No," Wesley garbled out with a blood-covered face before the next hit from Faith broke his jaw.

"I'm evil, a monster," Faith continued to shriek in between each and every punch, though by now tears were beginning to slide down her cheeks. She just kept punching and punching as hard as she could until she felt that she had no strength left. When she noticed that he had sometime earlier let go of her wrist she stopped and actually took a look down. Her stomach convulsed at the sight, during the attack she had not only broken his jaw but had also crushed his face and skull in. Where once his face had stood was now only a blood mass of bone and flesh.

"Oh god," Faith sputtered out as she scrambled back in horror and jolted upright to her feet. "No," She mumbled softly with a terrified beyond belief feeling in the pit of her stomach as her heart painfully broke into a million pieces in her chest. She pulled her gaze away from what had been Wesley's face and to her hand, and much to her shock and horror found it covered in blood and brains. Words failed her at that moment but her stomach did act, sending a jet stream of bile up her throat. She had just enough time to turn away and heave herself up onto the bar before she wretched everything out behind the bar until there was nothing left and she was dry heaving until her entire body hurt. Nearly throwing up again at the stench and taste of the bile on her lips and in her mouth Faith slid back off of the bar and onto the ground with a loud thud.

Curling up into a ball she finally let the tears flow, sobbing so hard that her chest and eyes hurt from the tears. Sprinkled in between the tears and the sobs were softly apologizes to everyone that she had ever wronged, and especially to Wesley. Her final apology came to God, even though she really didn't believe in him she begged him to end her suffering and just kill her and send her to hell and be done with her. He apparently had other ideas. She was just about to continue when she felt a hand on her back. She stopped rigidly almost the split second that the hand touched her back. Hazarding a glance out she had to wipe her eyes to clear them of the tears before she found herself staring back at a calm and happy looking Wesley.

"Congratulations Faith, you did it," Wesley said with a very proud smile on his face as he began to softly rub a small area on Faith's back with his thumb.

"What the…no, you're," Faith mumbled out with a frantically confused and terrified look on her face as she stared back at him before turning and looking back to where his body had been. But much to her surprise Wesley's body was gone and no trace of any blood could be seen. "What," Faith weakly mumbled out as she turned her head back towards Wesley and let a couple more tears fall.

"You just proved that you're not a monster Faith, you're not evil, a monster…a truly evil person, would not have reacted how you did, a monster would not have felt guilt, would not have felt remorse for what they did, enough remorse and guilt that they wanted to die, you were willing to be damned for eternity, you knew that you had failed and were openly admitting it, that's why you're not a monster, you're no saint…few are, but you're certainly not a monster, and now you can stop hating yourself and move forward, nine months," Wesley answered her feverish ramblings with a soft and proud smile on his face as he helped her back up to a seated position before he leaned in close, kissed her once on the forehead, and then disappeared. Faith only had a moment or two to wonder what he had meant before everything went black. Almost a fraction of a second later brilliant light filled Faith's vision as she blinked her eyes opened, gasped deeply, and sat up in bed, scaring shitless the nurse's stationed at her bedside after the surgery.

END OF CHAPTER 23

Author's Notes: Thanks again to everyone for reading and hopefully we can break my high review mark set by Future Imperfect, which I will continue if a bunch of people want me to, though I first have to finish some of my smaller stories. As always reviews are appreciated. I wrote the bit with Faith and Wesley in a bar seeing to me as how it'd be the logical place for them to talk and when Faith was last stabbed she had some pretty vivid dreams with Buffy in them that hinted at things to come, like with Dawn coming and all of that. The dream that she's having now with Wesley will foreshadow some things as well, though they won't be explained for some time. As for Faith throwing up and the bit at the end with her reaction I took the reasoning off of an old episode of Star Trek DS9, where Miles had killed a guy while being held prisoner somewhere and after he got rescued and got back to the station he thought he was a monster and was about to kill himself before Julian used the logic that Wesley uses with Faith to keep him from going through with it. Seemed to be appropriate here. And for the record yeah I'm a trekkie…though not an obsessive one, I know only a few of the actors names and don't have a clue about episode titles or things of that nature, I basically just watch the shows when they're on. Once again thanks for reading and feel free to read and review any or all of my other stories, even if you don't like the stories, it's always fun to get reviews.


	24. Lost And Found

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 24-LOST AND FOUND**

She nervously climbed the last flight of stairs and rounded the corner. After telling Willow everything Kennedy had been at a loss as to what to do. The only thing that popped into her head was the need, if not the desire, to find Mercedes and get some answers. Knowing that if she told anyone where she was going or brought any of them with her that it would end badly she instead left a message saying that she was going to get some answers and slipped out into the streets of Rome. Her only decision to make was whether or not to go to Mercedes or Kristine's apartment. She was halfway to Mercedes' apartment before she thought better of it and retraced her steps back to Kristine's, getting a workout on the stairs instead of taking the elevator. She did this to try and alleviate some of the pent up energy and emotions that were running rampant through her body.

She pulled the knife out of her boot as she neared Kristine's door, getting a shock at finding it half open. Having to steel herself against rushing in Kennedy instead slowly made her way to the door, trying to be as quiet as possible and listen to see if anyone was around. She thought that she heard a faint sniffling sound and dared enough to stick her head around the corner and take a look. The once pristine living room was now a total mess, with chairs and tables overturned and the television smashed up against the far wall. As she slowly crawled into the apartment was unnerved at the sight of a large bloodstain on the floor, especially as it looked fresh. She was confused a bit by this as she couldn't see any bodies lying around anywhere. She was just about to look in the kitchen when she heard the sniffle again, this time though she was sure that it came from the bedroom. She brandished her knife carefully as she made her way down the hallway and around the corner. When she entered the room the first thing that she saw was the large bed, covered in silk sheets. Even though she knew that she shouldn't her mind drifted back to the memory of how soft those same sheets were against her bare skin. She had loved it those few special nights.

She was about to turn away when she saw the top of someone's head rise up above the top of the bed on the far side near the door to the bathroom. The bathroom held special memories as well, though none with Kristine. Her hand went to the light switch and she was about to flip it on when instead she heard a familiar voice.

"Don't bother, the lights broke," Mercedes stated softly with a very somber and depressed tone to her voice before Kennedy relaxed a bit, pulled her hand back, and stood fully up.

"Mercedes, what are you doing here," Kennedy exclaimed with a sigh of relief as she cautiously hurried into the room and slid over the bed.

"Reminiscing," Mercedes mumbled back softly with a pained pout on her face before Kennedy got a good look at her via the light from the nightlight in the bathroom. From head to toe Mercedes was dripping wet and only wearing a pair of dark crimson panties and one sock. The droplets of water from her hair were falling off and running down her chest and stomach, finally collecting in a small damp spot on the rug in between her thighs.

"What happened, Mercedes…the blood, what happened," Kennedy asked with a very impatient and scared look on her face as she sheathed the knife and laid a hand on Mercedes' shoulder.

"They didn't find what they were looking for, they were trying to erase her…I couldn't let that happen," Mercedes started to reply softly through the veil of her hair as she hung her head and Kennedy could only see her through the gaps between locks of brown rooted red. As she finished speaking Kennedy moved around to the side a bit and got a better look at her lover. There were several cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over Mercedes' usually smooth skin and sculpted physique. But what was most striking of all was how red her eyes were, obviously from crying rivers of tears.

"I don't," Kennedy started to say back with an unsure look on her face before Mercedes looked up and into the bathroom, finally leaning over and catching sight of the bodies of several men that she recognized as those that had worked for The Immortal.

"They tried to get rid of her, make it like she…like she," Mercedes started to reply with a dull tone to her voice before her eyes filled up with tears and she looked to Kennedy. Acting more on instinct than a plan Kennedy leaned back towards the half naked vampire and pulled her into her arms, holding her close as Mercedes let the tears fall. Kennedy hummed a nursery rhyme that her mother had sung to her when she was little as she squeezed Mercedes into a tight hug as the vampire let loose the wave of tears that she had been holding in.

When Mercedes finally seemed to be calming down Kennedy took the opportunity to survey what surrounding she could without letting go. She saw that there were several photo albums and other personal affects strewn about the floor in such a way that seemed to suggest that Mercedes had been looking through them, remembering the happier times and trying to come to terms with Kristine's death in her own way. She still wasn't sure exactly what had happened but knew that she needed all of the answers if she was going to help her friend.

"Tell me what happened, tell me everything…please," Kennedy asked with a soft and supportive smile on her face as she lifted Mercedes' face up enough to lay a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Okay…I came here to remember the good times, get a few things, I was just starting to look through the photo albums when they busted down the door, they weren't happy to see me," Mercedes replied with a serious look on her face as she focused her gaze on a spot on the wall on the other side of the room and her gaze never deviated. "I couldn't help myself, I could smell it…they were there when he," Mercedes started to add with a nervous glazed over look on her face before her eyes filled up with tears again and she dropped her head down to Kennedy's shoulder before they fell.

"When the Immortal hurt Kristine, he hurt her," Kennedy stated softly and clearly out loud in an effort to both wrap her head around it and make sure that she was hearing Mercedes right.

"He didn't hurt her, he killed her…then he sent these flunkies here to clean up, they didn't last very long," Mercedes sniffled back into Kennedy's shoulder as one of her hands found its way to Kennedy's forearm and squeezed so hard that Kennedy thought that her arm was broken. Pulling away from Mercedes just enough to get a good look at the bodies of the men Kennedy saw that a few of them had their necks snapped while the others looked to have had their throats ripped out or to have been shot to death. Nearby the bloody and ripped apart shreds of Mercedes' clothes lay on the floor and it looked as if she hadn't fully turned the shower off after using it.

"Mercedes, you didn't," Kennedy started to declare with an almost frantic tone to her voice as she grabbed both sides of Mercedes' head with her hands and made her look her straight in the eye.

"Turn them…course not, I was hungry…I know when to stop, we can't let him get away with this Kennedy, we have to stop him," Mercedes stammered out with a terrified and insanely serious look in her eyes before she bit her bottom lip and lowered her head back down to Kennedy's shoulder.

"Don't worry baby, we'll make him pay, I swear it," Kennedy vowed with a very heartsick and determined look on her face and tone to her voice as she pulled Mercedes back into a tight embrace as the minutes continued to tick by.

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"Miss…I'm sorry, miss," A frantic nurse exclaimed as she dropped what she was doing and raced out of the room and into the hallway, doing her best to keep up.

"Where is he…I have to find him," Faith shouted in a panic as she slumped up against the wall and lurched her way down the hallway, using the wall to keep her standing upright. Rather than unhook the machines that she was patched up to after waking up Faith had instead just ripped enough wires and tubes away until she could get out of bed and make it to the door. Now her only concern was finding Wesley and making sure that he would be okay, she couldn't rest until she knew that he was safe.

"Please, you have to return to your room," Another nurse exclaimed with a confused and very surprised look on her face as she hurried to rush around Faith and get in front of her.

"Have to see Wes, have to make sure that he's okay," Faith mumbled back softly in reply with a very determined and scared look in her eyes as she brushed the woman aside and continued on down the hallway.

"Security," The nurse that Faith brushed aside shouted with a panicked tone to her voice as she got back up to her feet.

"Faith stop," Angel declared with a very serious and commanding scowl on his face as he came to a stop just a few feet behind Faith. After hearing the nurses shouting he had very nearly flown through the hallways fearing the worst. Now he wasn't sure what to think.

"No Angel, I have to see him," Faith shot back with a very determined and exhausted expression on her face as she found the strength to lift her head up and peer through her bangs while fervently trying to figure out which room Wesley was in.

"I understand Faith, but not right now, you're to weak," Angel replied with a nervous look on his face as he started to catch up to Faith, which wasn't hard since a toddler could keep up with her lurching stride.

"I am not," Faith shouted with a furious sneer on her face as she felt Angel closing in on her and she responded buy throwing a terribly aimed punch at him to get him to back off. Instead of striking Angel her fist instead struck open air and sent her spinning around like a top until she couldn't support her own weight and crumpled down to the floor.

"Oh really, now do you believe me," Angel said back with an impatient tone to his voice as he started to kneel down to help Faith up but she did her best to brush him away.

"No Angel…stay back, I can do this on my own, after I see Wesley I can rest…I have to make sure that he's okay," Faith growled back at first with a very angry tone to her voice before her countenance softened considerably and she looked more like what she was, a thoroughly exhausted and weakened slayer just trying to put her mind at ease.

"Fine Faith, I'll help you see Wesley, but you have to let me help you, you won't make it to his room like this," Angel said softly with a concerned and worried look on his face as he slowly and carefully knelt back down beside Faith, careful not to make any sudden movements until finally he laid a hand on her shoulder and she didn't flinch.

"Damn it," Faith grumbled under her breath as she had to admit that Angel was right and that she didn't think that her legs would be able to carry her the rest of the way.

"Faith, what…how," Dawn exclaimed with a very surprised expression on her face as she and Willow walked around the corner and caught sight of Angel helping Faith up into a wheelchair.

"I don't know Dawn, I just found her like this," Angel replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders as Faith halfway looked up and over at Willow.

"Let's go already," Faith started to say with an impatient scowl on her face before she started to make to get up out of the chair.

"Okay, we're going," Angel said back with a still confused frown on his face as he shook his head before he started to push Faith down the hallway, with a confused Dawn and Willow clearing the way.

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"Excuse me, what did you say, Angel is," Buffy exclaimed at first with a flabbergasted look on her face as she shook her head to try and clear things up.

"My father, now tell us where he is or," Connor replied with an emotionless look in his eyes as he repeated his statement before he started to take a step forward towards Buffy.

"Okay buddy, that's far enough, you think that you can just show up, claim that you're Angel's son and," Xander started to argue with a defensive tone to his voice as he stepped in front of Buffy and put his hands up to if necessary physically stop Connor.

"I am his son," Connor replied back with a reluctant scowl on his face before he suddenly grabbed Xander's left arm and in a flash flipped the former carpenter over his shoulder and then slammed him hard down onto the ground on his back.

"Xander," Buffy shouted in alarm with a shocked and surprised look on her face as she recovered from the initial shock of what had just happened before she clenched her hands into fists and looked ready to fight.

"Connor no…we can't do this, come on guys, we're all friends here," Kate interjected with a skittish and nervous smile on her face as she walked past Gwen and laid a hand on Connor's shoulder.

"Hardly honey, the only friend that I'm looking for is Angel, he and I have some unfinished business to sort out," Gwen sharply stated with an alarmed and impatient expression on her face as the spark that was going between the fingers of her gloveless hand intensified.

"Really, what kind," Xander asked with an interested smirk on his face as Kate got Connor to let go of his arm and step back before Buffy quickly helped him to his feet.

"Xander," Buffy growled softly under her breath with a very serious pout on her face as she started to think about a game plan.

"No Buffy, she says that she and Angel are friends, why not prove it," Xander replied with a slightly hurt and embarrassed look on his face as he brushed himself off while keeping an eye on Connor.

"Okay…I'll bite, he helped me out of a couple of jams a few months back, after that I never got the chance to properly thank him," Gwen replied with an irritated and annoyed frown on her face at first before her frown turned into a smile at the end and there was a slight twinkle in her eye.

"Meaning," Buffy asked with a very serious look on her face and tone to her voice as she pushed Xander behind her as the two backed away a bit.

"Meaning blondie that I already know that he's one hell of a kisser, I wonder what else he's good at," Gwen casually replied with a taunting smile on her face and amused tone to her voice as Kate couldn't tell if she was actually being serious or just toying with them.

"Gwen, we don't have time for this, we have to find Angel and the others before it's to late," Kate interrupted with an impatient frown on her face as she did her best to hold her tongue and keep her temper in check.

"They came this way, Angel was here, but wait…there is another, faint…but similar to Angel's," Groo said with a very confidant edge to his voice as he walked back towards the group after having quickly checked something out in the nearby alley.

"I give up, what," Xander exclaimed with a confused smirk on his face as he threw his hands up in defeat and turned to face Groo.

"He means that my father has been by here recently, and that there was someone else with him that leaves a trail almost identical to his, perhaps not all of them perished," Connor answered softly with a very contemplative expression on his face as he turned away from Xander and began to check out the street surrounding him.

"Duh Daniel Boone, we already know that Wesley's alive, looking like a Punisher knockoff no less, and Faith switched sides for the like the hundredth time," Xander said with a sarcastic frown on his face as he shook his head and kept his distance from either Gwen or Groo.

"Good to know at least one of them survived," Gwen mumbled softly to herself, though not low enough for Buffy to miss it, before she snapped her composed countenance back into place.

"I do not know this Faith, is she a vampire like Angel," Groo asked with a confused look on his face as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned back to face Xander.

"She's a slayer Groo, like Buffy…only she still has a mind of her own," Gwen explained with an amused smirk on her face that only grew with Buffy's immediate reaction.

"Hey," Buffy exclaimed with an angry scowl on her face as she whipped her head around and glared over at Gwen.

"It's not her, I know Faith, this is not her trail…it's his, we need to follow it," Connor said softly as he shook his head before he turned to glance back at Kate briefly before turning away and racing off into the night. Groo looked nervous for a bit before he bowed to Kate and the others ever so slightly and then took off after Connor.

"This is insane, Connor…Groo…stop, we're not done here yet," Katy shouted out loudly after Connor and Groo before she turned back around and sighed.

"Looks like they have other ideas," Gwen joked with an amused smirk on her face before she shrugged her shoulders and pulled her glove back on. Before Kate could answer Gwen shook her head and then slipped back into the shadows.

"No Gwen wait…damn, no matter what you think of us we're on the same side here, we all want the same thing," Kate replied with an anxious and nervous smile on her face as she shook her head before Buffy spoke.

"And what would that be," Buffy asked with a curious expression on her face as she let her guard drop as she didn't believe that Kate posed a threat.

"To see justice done," Katy replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders before she turned and walked away, despite Xander's calls for her to stay put and answer all of his questions.

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"Come on Mercedes, we can't stay here any longer," Kennedy said with a harsh tone to her voice as she stepped back into the bedroom to see Mercedes standing at Kristine's closet door, stripping off her panties.

"I'm not ready yet, I have to find where she put clothes, I've stayed here a few times and left some of my clothes behind, she washed them for me and said that I should pick them up sometime but I never did," Mercedes replied with an impatient and nervous frown on her face as she started to look through the shirts and blouses that were hanging on hangers.

"Have you tried looking in any of the drawers, they're going to figure out that something happened to those guys in the bathroom and send more, we can't be here when they get here understand," Kennedy shot back with a very serious look on her face as she walked across the bedroom and then pulled open one of the drawers.

"Kristine always kept everything in her closet…except for herself, they have to be in here somewhere I just…ha, see told you," Mercedes started to reply with a bored pout on her face before she grinned a bit in the middle and then proudly produced a bag of clothes out of the back of the closet seconds later.

"Okay good, so come on already, get dressed, we have to find Willow and the others," Kennedy said back with a serious and impatient frown on her face as she shut the drawer that she had opened and straightened up, sighing softly at the end of the action.

"Are you sure, won't she want to torch me, now that she knows about us I don't see her being very forgiving," Mercedes replied with an unsure expression on her face as she tossed the bag of clothes onto the bed and pulled out her underwear.

"She's not like that…anymore, sure she's mad, but she knows that there's something going on here…if we don't rush into this I know that she'll listen to you and then she can help us against the Immortal," Kennedy answered with what she hoped was a confidant response as she ripped the bag open and then picked out a pair of jeans and handed them to Mercedes as she was slipping her bra on.

"Really…I heard that she skinned the last guy that crossed her, no…the best thing for us to do is find Angel and help him," Mercedes replied with a skeptically tone of voice as she pulled her jeans on and then sucked her stomach in a bit to get them snapped quickly.

"We can't avoid Willow forever, if I have any chance with her I have to come clean and get everything out into the open, that includes you," Kennedy replied with a nervous frown on her face as she began to dig through the pile of clothes until she found a pair of shoes and socks.

"So you want to stay together with her, what about us," Mercedes asked with a curious look on her face before she bragged a tight black sleeveless shirt and pulled it on, half tucking it in before yanking a long sleeved denim shirt out of the pile as well and starting to put it on.

"What we had was…," Kennedy started to say with an unsure look of embarrassment on her face as she stared down at the tops of her shoes before Mercedes chuckled.

"Planned out from the beginning by the Immortal to break you and Willow up, divide and conquer…except after a week it was all just to much fun to stop, you want the honest truth fine…here it is, if you and Willow stay together good, thank your lucky stars or whatever and don't look back, if on the other hand she dumps you, don't expect me to pick up the pieces, I don't see me staying here in Rome after this is over," Mercedes replied with a nervous look on her face as she sat down on the edge of the bed and started to put her socks on.

"So then it was all just a game, you didn't actually like me, you never had any feelings for me," Kennedy asked softly with a bewildered expression on her face as she walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Mercedes. After sitting silently there fro a second Mercedes reached over and pulled Kennedy into a powerful kiss.

"Would I have just done that if I didn't…look, you're great in the sack, but other than that there really is no us to speak of, if you want to change that then look me up after this is all over and we'll give it a shot, though I'm not going to wait forever, who knows what'll happen if I get my soul back, you may never find me again after that," Mercedes said softly with a very honest and serious tone to her voice as she went back to putting her socks on and then her shoes. She had finished putting them on and had just grabbed a coat to leave when Kennedy finally found her voice.

"You're a real bitch you know that," Kennedy grumbled with an impatient scowl on her face as she looked up and glared at Mercedes after she grabbed a hold of her arm to keep her near.

"Baby…trust me, you ain't seen nothing yet, when I get my hands on the Immortal he'll wish that he'd staked me to," Mercedes replied softly after looking hurt for a moment before she leaned down, placed a soft kiss on Kennedy's forehead and then quietly left the room, leaving a confused and anxious Kennedy to sit there and stew about her choices.

END OF CHAPTER 24

Author's Notes: Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed this story, I've now tied my all time high in reviews and am only one away from setting a new personal record. As to the story Faith's willingness to pay for her crimes and full acknowledgement of her actions played a great deal in her being healed, though not fully, just enough to see Wesley with a little help from Angel. Mercedes isn't saying that she wants to be together with Kennedy, she's saying that she's okay with it if Kennedy and Willow work through this and stay together. But if they don't then Mercedes won't wait very long for Kennedy to change her mind, especially if she obtains her soul. So basically the proverbial ball is in Kennedy and Willow's court. Mercedes went to Kristine's apartment to have a good cry basically, then some of The Immortal's men showed up, she killed them in a rage, and then took a shower to clean up, throwing all of the men into the bathroom to hide them from anyone that just glanced into the apartment. When Kennedy found her she had only stepped out of the shower a few moments earlier, not going far enough to strip completely nude to take the shower, just jumping right in and ripping her bloody clothes off in the process. So thanks again to everyone who has read and reviewed this story, you all give me the drive to continue.


	25. New Problems

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 25-NEW PROBLEMS**

"That went well," Gwen grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face as she glared over at Kate, who was busy trying to get Groo to explain what he and Connor had found after following Angel's trail. After losing the trail the four had slid into a bar and taken over one of the back tables. Reluctantly Gwen had agreed to pay for the tab.

"Well maybe if you hadn't come off as the world's biggest bitch then maybe we could have gotten something, now thanks to you they think we're either crazy, or the enemy," Kate shot back with an equally unhappy glare as she started to rise up out of her chair but Groo held her back.

"Please Kate, fighting amongst ourselves will not help us find Angel any faster," Groo pleaded to Kate with an earnest expression on his face before she relented and sat back down in her seat, taking the beer that Connor offered her.

"He's right, we have to find my father before anything worse happens," Connor added with a serious and impatient frown on his face as he leaned back in his chair and tried not to notice the stares that he was getting from some of the other patrons.

"We will find Angel Connor, do not despair," Groo said back with a confidant smile on his face as he beside him Kate wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid grin off of his face. After he had left LA after realizing that Cordelia was not in love with him he had traveled the globe, often taking whatever job would pay well enough for him to survive. He had been to every continent in the world and had been traveling through London on his way back to the states when on night he had helped save a young woman who had taken the wrong back alley to get home. He had almost missed noticing that she was in danger, but the gunshots had alerted him to her plight. When he had raced to the scene he had been surprised to find a blonde woman barely holding off a Fyarl demon with a gun. He had started to proudly proclaim his intent to help but the demon had other ideas and slapped him back into a pile of trash bags. He had recovered quickly enough and had used a large pry bar to finally kill the demon, but not before both he and the blonde woman that had been holding the demon off with her gun received a few injuries. He couldn't remember the name of the young woman that they had saved that night but he would always remember the night that he ran across Kate Lockley.

"Easy for you to say, how do you do it huh, the whole eternal optimism shtick," Gwen shot back with an annoyingly confused frown on her face before she took a sip of her drink.

"Fear and despair are not emotions that I allow to control me, I have found that it one keeps a positive mental outlook that," Groo started to eagerly explain with an excited smile on his face before Kate intervened.

"Have any of your contacts found anything yet," Kate asked with an impatient smile on her face as she slid one of her hands under the table and landed it on Groo's knee, giving it a hard squeeze, their code to tell him to be quiet and let her talk.

"Nothing yet," Gwen started to reply with a concerned frown on her face before a haggard looking man burst into the pub.

"Miss Raiden," The man shouted with a very serious and hurried tone to his voice as he rushed to the bar and then frantically began to scan the crowd.

"Walter…what the hell is going on, what are you," Gwen started to sputter out with a very surprised and confused expression on her face as she stood up but only pushed the chair back a bit, staying in her place, as she stared straight at the man.

"I did it, I found them," Walter announced after sighing heavily with relief as he wiped some sweat off of his brow and then raced up to their table.

'That's the first good news that we've heard all night," Connor grumbled with an impatient pout on his face before he grabbed the nearest beer, drained it, and then followed the others out of the pub.

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"Where the bloody hell have you been," Spike asked with a very calm and casual tone to his voice as he stayed in his position in the hallway outside of Wesley's room.

"I needed some time alone," Mercedes hesitantly replied with a nervous tone to her voice as she slowed her step down and almost slinked up to stand just behind Spike, almost like a person who was approaching their monarch and told to kneel would.

"Fair enough luv, but the next time that you fancy a bit of me time…don't," Spike growled back more harshly than he had originally intended and without turning around to catch her reaction he could tell that she flinched at his statement.

"Sorry, I went to Kristine's apartment…some men came but I took care of them, then Kennedy showed up and slapped some sense into me, so…what'd I miss," Mercedes replied with a nervous at first and then almost bored look on her face as Spike finally turned around and she could tell that he hadn't eaten or slept in many hours.

"Not much, other than Faith pullin a Lazarus on us, yeah she's in there with him right now, one minute she's in recovery and the next she's shoving nurses out of the way left and right, but you really don't care about either of them do you," Spike answered the question with a soft smile on his face as he recalled the look on Angel's face when he had ushered Faith into the room.

"You know me to well…but you're right, I don't really give a flying fuck whether they live or die…well except unless they want to…can we talk, alone I mean," Mercedes started to reply back with a sly and innocently guilty smile on her face as she brushed some hair back behind her ear before her tone grew serious and almost scared.

"Of course, just as long as you don't ask me what Angel's going to do next, because I don't have a clue and neither does he," Spike grumbled back with an impatient shrug of his shoulders before he followed Mercedes off to an empty hospital room nearby.

"Don't worry that's not it…um, what's it like, having a soul I mean," Mercedes stuttered out with a nervous and curious look on her face as she closed the door behind them.

"Why do you want to know, you had a soul once…can't you remember what it was like," Spike shot back with a less than enthusiastic tone to his voice as he turned back to look at her as he hopped up to sit on one of the beds.

"Kind of…when I became a vampire losing my soul meant nothing, I entered into a whole new world, where I could do whatever I wanted and not feel guilty about any of it, it was perfect…no rules, no right…no wrong, but then I just started to feel like there was something missing, nothing seemed to really affect me that much anymore, I couldn't have fun after a kill," Mercedes solemnly started to reply with a sad look on her face as she slowly walked over to the other bed in the room and slid up onto it.

"So you think that if you get your soul back then you'll enjoy killing again, sorry luv but it doesn't exactly work out like that…trust me, when you get your soul back you remember every kill that you ever made, every single damn detail, but rather than excite you…give you a bit of pride, it tears you apart, you can't think straight, all you see is their faces, all you hear is their voices, vampires weren't meant to get their souls back," Spike replied with a very soft tone of voice as he stared hard at a bit of lint that he brushed off of his jeans before he lifted his gaze up to meet Mercedes' and it very nearly bored a whole right through her with its intensity.

"But you did, Angel too," Mercedes said back with a curious edge to her voice as she looked like she was almost smirking but kept herself from going that far, out of what she didn't immediately know.

"Hardly luv, it's apples and oranges, Peaches soul was forced onto him and he paid for it, me…I wanted my soul because I thought that it was what I needed to make her love me, I thought that if I had a soul she'd have to see that I was worthy," Spike joked back with a sarcastically amused half grin on his face as he swung his feet up onto the bed and then made a scene of laying out onto the bed with his feet hanging over the edge at the foot of the bed.

"But," Mercedes sputtered out with a look on her face that prompted Spike to think a few steps ahead of her and he cut her off at the pass.

"If you don't have a better reason for wanting your soul back than what you just told me then you should look elsewhere, a soul isn't a cure all pet, it only causes more problems," Spike reiterated his earlier point with a very clear look on his face as he laid back a bit more on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"I understand that Spike, it's just when the Immortal first told me about it I thought he was crazy, why would I possibly ever want my soul back, as time went on I couldn't get it out of my head, being evil is easy, you just kill someone and don't give a fuck, but with a soul…besides, there's this prophecy about a," Mercedes

"Vampire with a soul that becomes human again as a reward if he plays by the rules, sorry but it's a lost cause for you, Angel and I are already mixed up in that damn thing, the last thing that we need is for you to join the party," Spike grumbled back with an annoyed groan as he rolled his head and shook his head at any mention of the Shanshu prophecy.

"Maybe you're right, but come on…for all of the power and abilities that one gets when they become a vampire no matter how hard they try, how high they rise, in the end they just end up as dust, we've been at this for centuries Spike, we're still just the things that go bump in the night, stories that people tell around the campfire to scare each other, I want something more than that, I want a chance to make my own future, my own destiny, not listen to some idiot rant and rave about vampire pride, God…vampires…the whole lot of us…are such posers," Mercedes calmly answered with a serious look on her face as she began to slowly unravel the edges of the blanket that was lying on top of her bed before she cautiously got up out of her bed, walked across the small gap between beds, and then laid down beside Spike, curling up next to him and staring up at the ceiling, all the while hoping that he wouldn't think that she was crazy.

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"We're going to need a scorecard to keep up with all of Angel's friends you know," Xander grumbled with an embarrassed and impatient frown on his face as he and Buffy rounded the corner and the front of the building that housed Giles' office came into view.

"I know what you mean, they seem to pop up out of the woodwork every few days, but Connor…could he really be Angel's…son," Buffy replied softly with a tense smile on her face at first before her expression grew much more serious and concerned as she stopped walking long enough to step up and onto the sidewalk.

"It's gotta be a lie, we all know that vampires can't have children, otherwise we would have been overrun with little vamps years ago," Xander said back with a sheepish grin on his face before the two got to the front doors of the building and he stepped in front of her to open the door for her. She smiled her thanks as she walked through the door.

"But what if it isn't, then we have to face the fact that if Connor is who he says that he is then…Angel is his father, but who is his mother," Buffy added back with a very serious and almost scared look on her face as the two started to walk up the first flight of stairs but were both almost knocked over by a pink haired woman rushing out of the building.

"Well that was rude," Xander growled with an angry scowl on his face as he steadied himself on the step and then turned to Buffy to make sure that she was okay as well.

"Who was that," Buffy asked with an annoyed pout on her face as she momentarily thought about following after the woman but stopped when Giles' voice interrupted her thoughts.

"A colossal blunder by the old council, and our newest problem, her name is Audrey, several years ago she was contacted by an old friend, she's a slayer, unfortunately shortly after contact was made she and her parents were in a horrible car crash, both of her parents were killed and we thought that she was as well," Giles interjected with a very clearly upset and anxious tone to his voice as he came stepping down the staircase until he got to where Xander and Buffy were, almost out of breath by the end.

"Looks like you were wrong," Xander joked with a sly grin on his face before it fell immediately from his face when Buffy glared at him.

"Painfully so…she believes that she was abandoned by the council after the crash, and I'm afraid that there's little that I can say to prove her wrong," Giles sadly responded with a glum frown on his face as he let out a sigh and slid his hands into his pockets.

"Well that's all really exciting Giles…really, but we have some bigger news," Buffy started to reply with an anxious half smirk on her face before Xander spoke up.

"Vampires can't have kids right," Xander interjected with an over anxious expression on his face as he turned from looking at Buffy to stare straight at Giles.

"What…of course not, why would you ask such a silly question," Giles asked with a perplexed frown on his face as he stared at Xander as if he had gone mad.

"Because just a few minutes ago we met a young man that said that he was Angel's son, he was about Dawn's age…but that can't be right Giles, it's not possible," Buffy reiterated with a nervous and slightly scared look in her eyes as she silently hoped that Giles would answer everything quickly.

"You're right Buffy, it's not possible…at least it shouldn't be possible, I should do some research and see if there's anything in the archives, meanwhile please refrain from discussing Audrey with anyone…at least for the time being," Giles replied with a nervous look on his face as he knew in his head that it wasn't possible but in his gut he had a different feeling.

"Sure Giles, whatever you say," Xander slowly stuttered out with an unsure shrug of his shoulders before Giles turned and walked back up the stairs towards his office.

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"The doctor's said that he's going to be fine Faith, you don't have to watch him every second until then," Angel said softly with a concerned look on his face as he laid a hand on Faith's shoulder as she sat in a chair that was pulled up beside Wesley's bed.

"I know, but I just need to be here, I could never forgive myself if something happened and I wasn't there when he needed me," Faith replied back with a calm look on her face though the look in her eyes told a much different story or fear and doubt.

"You really should get some sleep Faith, you look terrible…Angel and I will watch Wesley, you can use the empty bed behind the curtain, you won't be more than a few feet away, anything happens and we'll wake you up," Nina said to Faith with a worried look on her face as she walked around to the opposite side of Wesley's bed that Faith and Angel were on.

"No I," Faith began to protest with a tired look on her face before she couldn't help but yawn deeply and fight to keep her eyes open.

"Nina's right, you can't do Wesley any good if you can't even stay awake for more than a few minutes, they've pumped him full of enough drugs to keep him out for a long time, by the time that he wakes up and wants to talk you'll both be up," Angel added with a sincere look of concern in his eyes as he knelt down beside Faith before she mumbled harshly under her breath and nodded her head, allowing Angel to help her over to the empty bed.

"Remember, anything happens you swear that you'll wake me…up," Faith mumbled out softly with a very tired look on her face as almost the second that her head hit the pillow her eyelids grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep before Angel could answer her in the affirmative.

"I gotta say, this is not what I expected, Wesley and Faith…that's got to be the surprise of the decade," Dawn interjected with a pleasantly surprised smile on her face as she and Willow walked into the room but kept their voices down as they saw Faith softly snoring away on the other bed.

"None of this makes any sense anymore," Angel glumly replied with a tired look on his face before Willow shut the door behind them and then spoke up softly.

"Sorry about not being able to get the book, with what happened to Wesley and Faith and Kennedy spilling her guts I," Willow started to apologize with a guilty and embarrassed expression on her face before Nina shook her head and gave her a quick hug.

"It's okay…right Angel," Nina said with a very honest smile on her face after she let go of Willow and then turned to Angel.

"Huh, oh yeah…besides we wouldn't have been able to pull off the distraction and the plan would have been dead in the water, though now we're two down and time's running out, The Immortal is planning something and we have to find out what it is," Angel answered with a very serious look on his face as he unceremoniously sat down in the chair that Faith had been sitting in and rubbed his eyes.

"So what's the plan now," Dawn asked with a curious tone to her voice as she checked her watch before edging a bit closer to Wesley's bed.

"Beats me, Illyria's somewhere in the hospital, Wes and Faith are out of action, that only leaves me and Spike…and Nina," Angel replied with a nervous and defeated shrug of his shoulders as he slumped down a bit in the chair.

"Besides, we still have to find Mercedes, she's the only one that really knows what's going on," Nina started to say with a worried look on her face as she leaned a bit on the wall beside Wesley's bed before the door opened.

"Someone looking for me," Mercedes asked with a slightly cheesy grin on her face as she poked her head into the room before Willow's immediate emotions got the better of her and she fired off a spell that struck Mercedes square in the chest and sent her flying back out into the hallway.

"Bloody hell," Spike exclaimed loudly from somewhere out in the hallway before everyone in the room heard the sound of one body colliding with another and the shattering of glass.

"Willow," Dawn shouted in alarm with a very surprised and scared look on her face as she ducked underneath the nearest sturdy piece of furniture and dared not come out until the coast was clear.

"Sorry…it just happened, I didn't mean to," Willow stuttered out with a guilty look of sadness on her face before she made a point of jamming her hands into her pockets and sitting down on the floor on the far side of the room away from the door that Mercedes had just been blasted out of.

"What the hell was," Mercedes started to snarl back with her game face firmly in place as she stormed back towards the door but Angel cut her off at the pass and caught her in a tight bear hug.

"Stop it right now, Kennedy told her everything, so unless you want to die for real I suggest you and Spike go find Illyria," Angel stated with a very determined and clear tone of voice as Mercedes calmed down and stopped struggling against Angel.

"Told you it'd come back and bite you in the ass," Spike quipped with a darkly amused grin on his face as he sat up on the floor and stared up at Angel and Mercedes.

"Bite me," Mercedes replied in a huff as Angel let her go before she growled softly and then headed off down the hallway, not looking back to see if either master vampire was following her.

"Let the games begin eh Peaches," Spike added with a sly grin on his face as he hopped back up to his feet, patted Angel on the back, and then took off after Mercedes, leaving Angel doing his best to keep from ripping Spike limb from limb in frustration.

END OF CHAPTER 25

Author's Note: Mercedes wants her soul back not because she wants to be one of the white hats, she's bored being bad, part of her is possessive because it's her soul, part of her wants a challenge, and there's a part of her that doesn't like staying the same while everyone that she knows grows old and dies, basically that being a vampire isn't all that it's cracked up to be, at least in her eyes. Audrey showed up, met with Giles, and then left in a huff with Giles adding her to the list of people that have a beef with the new council and that they have to work on mending fences and repairing the bonds of trust with. More work for the weary pretty much. Buffy doesn't want to believe that Angel has a son, as she, Xander, and Giles know enough about vampires to know that they can't reproduce but haven't yet fully thought through Connor's statement and they don't know his back story. In their scene in the empty hospital room Spike and Mercedes didn't have sex there at the end, Spike was just lounging on the bed because he was bored and Mercedes climbed up beside him, hoping that he wouldn't get mad and kick her off immediately.

Groo and Kate met one night when Groo helped Kate save a young woman from a Fyarl demon, the kind that Giles got turned into and got Spike to help him. After that they of course talked and once the subject of Angel came up…they had a lot to talk about, and seem to be a bit friendly. Kate is trying to be diplomatic about all of this though in this chapter I tried to show that she still is a fighter, she just picks her spots better than Gwen does. At the end of the chapter Willow's actions are more about that she just saw the "other woman" so to speak and her emotions got the better of her. Angel's order to go find Illyria was more a way to get everyone to calm down. In closing thanks to J for giving me my record breaking sixtieth review and here's hoping that I get a good many more. Btw, I have a forum up if anyone wants to ask any questions about this or any of my other stories.


	26. Meet And Greet

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 26-MEET AND GREET**

"Any change in his condition," Roger asked gruffly with a busy tone to his voice as he kept writing away in his journal while not looking at his petite assistant.

"No sir, I called twenty minutes ago and he had yet to regain consciousness," Rhonda replied softly with a timid look of sadness on her face as she tried to read Roger's reaction to the news about Wesley's condition but his countenance remained impassive.

"Foolish boy, getting in over his head," Roger grumbled back with an irritated scowl on his face as he shook his head.

"Actually sir, we do have a witness that says that he saw The Immortal at the scene of your son's attack," Rhonda interrupted with a nervous look on her face as she then quickly looked back down at the letter that she was copying.

"Paid off undoubtedly, please Rhonda, do not bring such salacious gossip into this room, now if you would be so kind as to hand deliver this letter to a Mr. Robin Wood at the Belmont hotel room thirty three, it has to be done tonight," Roger spat out at first with an almost annoyed frown on his face before he handed Rhonda a heavy envelope.

"Yes sir," Rhonda replied with a skittish expression on her face as she put her things away and then left the room.

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"Are you sure this is the place," Gwen demanded with a tired glare in her eyes as she squinted against the sun on the way into the hospital.

"Yes I'm sure now get moving, Angel and the others are in there somewhere and we need to find them before it's to late," Kate stated back with a very clear and firm tone to her voice before she smiled at Groo as he stepped up in front of her so that the automatic doors wouldn't close up on her.

"My father is here, I can smell him," Connor added with a very serious look on his face as looked up the front of the hospital.

"I will be proud to fight alongside Angel once again," Groo said with a very excited smile on his face as he approached the front desk and then inquired about Angel while the others waited impatiently nearby.

"He probably didn't use his name you know, he wouldn't be that stupid," Gwen muttered softly under her breath as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and kept a watchful eye on everyone else in the room, making sure that no one had heard anything.

"You're right, Groo just forget about it, we'll find them on our own," Kate started to say with a frustrated and anxious sigh as she turned to stop Groo before the elevator doors opened nearby.

"Oh my God, Connor," Nina exclaimed with a flabbergasted look of relieved surprise on her face as she stepped out of the elevator and caught sight of him.

"Nina," Connor started to reply with a startled look in his eyes before Nina rushed to him and enveloped him in a tight bear hug, leaving him to look to the others for help.

"Do we know her," Gwen asked with a confused look of revulsion on her face at the display of emotion as she glanced over towards first Kate and then Groo, both of whom just shrugged and shook their heads.

"What are you doing here, how did you find us," Nina ripped off a couple of questions in a hurry as she let go of Connor and tried to remain calm.

"We were looking for you," Connor replied with a nervous smile on his face as he blushed a bit and stared at anywhere but Nina's face.

"Me, why would you be looking for…oh, you're looking for your dad, third floor…he'll be so happy, he needs something to cheer him up," Nina replied with a confused look on her face at first before she blushed with embarrassment at her wrong assumption before she smiled to cover up her mistake and turned to the elevator.

"Why…what happened," Kate asked with a concerned look on her face as she readied herself for anything.

"We were hiding out at a safe house across town when the Immortal and his goons found us, Wesley and Faith tried to fight them off but they got hurt pretty badly, if Angel and Spike hadn't come back with Illyria when they did I hate to think of what might have happened," Nina answered softly with a very serious look of concern on her face as she relayed the events of the past couple of days to Kate and the others.

"Who's Illyria," Groo asked with a confused look on his face as he found that he couldn't recall anyone named Illyria working with Angel.

"And Spike," Gwen stuttered out slightly with a reluctant look of confusion on her face as she anxiously balled up her hands into fists.

"I've never heard of Illyria but Spike was the name of a vampire that ran with Angel back in the day when he was evil, he was Angel's grandchilde," Kate said back with a deep in thought look on her face as she then took a moment to ponder this outcome.

"He looks a lot like Billy Idol, Illyria…uh," Connor added with a helpful half smile on his face before Nina jumped in.

"Well Illyria…it's a long story, I'd better let Angel explain," Nina said softly with a curious look on her face before she smiled weakly and walked back over to the elevator and pushed the up button.

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"Does it hurt," Vi asked softly with a concerned and hesitant look on her face as she cautiously sat down on the couch next to Andrew.

"Sometimes when I…uh I mean no…doesn't hurt a bit," Andrew started to reply with a weak smile on his face before he switched gears and tried to sound tough. Trying to further prove his point he struck his leg with his cast and had to instantly bite his lip to keep from crying out in pain.

"You sure, it looks pretty bad," Vi asked with a sympathetic look of concern on her face as she inched a bit closer to Andrew.

"What this…nah, it's fine," Andrew started to say back with a proud and strong look on his face before he couldn't help it any longer and his eyes started to tear up.

"If it's fine then why are you crying," Vi added with an impatient look in her eyes as she laid a hand on Andrew's shoulder and tried not to smile.

"Because I…well um I," Andrew stammered out, initially trying to avoid Vi's gaze, before he glanced briefly up at her and became locked in and couldn't escape.

"You want me to kiss it and make it better," Vi asked softly with a slightly husky tone to her voice as she closed her eyelids a bit and smiled sweetly at Andrew, who was now looking at Vi like she had been replaced by a clone.

"N…no, that's okay…oh uh Xander hi, how's it going…good, yeah that's great," Andrew suddenly stammered out with a thoroughly embarrassed look on his face as he vaulted up out of his seat on the couch and began to quickly stumble back towards the nearest doorway just as Xander walked in.

"What's with him," Xander asked with a confused look on his face as he turned to look first at the departing Andrew and then at Vi.

"Beats me, I just asked him if his hand hurt and he started balling and then ran out," Vi replied with as innocent of a look as she could muster at that moment before she stood up and hiked up her jeans a bit.

"Weird guy…anyway I have a job for you and Rhona, I want the two of you to find this girl and then come back and tell us, do not let her know that you're there and do not confront her, we just need to know where she lives," Xander answered softly as he shook his head in dismay before he handed Vi a black and white picture of Audrey when she had looked up into one of the security cameras long enough. Vi scrunched up her face in concentration for a bit before speaking up.

"You have a thing for this girl, I know you haven't…much…since Anya, but there has to be other ways," Vi stammered out her question with a confused and scared look on her face as she didn't know how Xander would respond.

"What…no, she's a slayer, she showed up out of the blue this afternoon and left before Giles could," Xander began to reply with a startled look on his face before he shook his head in frustration and tried to explain.

"Gotcha," Vi shot back with a cheesy smile and a mock salute before she gave Xander a quick wink and then spun around on her heel and took off out of the room.

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After finally getting bored Spike had sat up and left the room, rather rudely elbowing Mercedes in the ribs before he got up. She thought about snapping at him but by the time that she opened her eyes he had already sat up and had his back to her. Groaning in frustration she pushed herself up and then tried to flatten her hair. Spike left the room without a word to her and rather than rush right out after him she remembered Willow's reaction to seeing her and thought better of it. She hesitantly went room from room, making sure that Willow was nowhere in sight before she'd move to the next room. By the time that she got back to Wesley's room Groo and Illyria had taken up guard duty outside of the room.

"I am sorry but I cannot let you pass," Groo said with a very soft but firm tone to his voice and look on his face as he held his arm across the doorway.

"I think you should know that I'm not good at taking directions," Mercedes started to say back with a sly and sarcastic grin on her face as she laid a hand on Groo's arm and then started to duck underneath it, but he intercepted her and bodily got in front of her.

"Please step back, I do not want to hurt you but if you do not step back then," Groo started to say with a firm but anxious look on his face as Mercedes started to pout a bit as she took a step back, allowing some hair to fall forward over her face and cover up her left eye.

"Look buddy, I don't know who the hell you think you are but I am going in there, you can try and stop me if you want but," Mercedes started to snap back with a very determined and frustrated scowl on her face as she glared up at Groo before the door opened and Angel's voice called out.

"It's okay Groo let her pass," Angel stated with a clear tone to his voice as he held the door open.

"See…told ya," Mercedes quipped with an amused smirk on her face before she winked at Groo and then started to turn to Illyria to send a glare her way but was stopped when Angel grabbed her arm tightly and yanked her back into the room. "Hey…easy, hands off," Mercedes growled with an unhappy and combative tone to her voice and scowl on her face as she wrenched her arm free and backed away from Angel, all the while glaring venomously at him.

"Easy luv," Spike whispered harshly into her ear as he walked up behind her and laid a restrictive hand on her shoulder. More than anything she wanted to argue with him about the matter but the next few words, and their tone, that he whispered into her ear caused her to come to the conclusion that arguing was futile.

"Fine…what's going on, who are they," Mercedes grumped with an unhappy pout on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and then lightly glared over at Kate and Connor.

"Family," Angel finally replied with an anxious and slightly confused look on his face as he turned and looked at each and every one of the group that had come with Kate before finally his gaze landed and lingered on Connor, letting his feelings be conveyed that way.

"And you would be," Kate asked with a slightly impatient frown on her face as she looked mostly straight over at Mercedes, but glanced over at Angel out of the corner of her eye so as to gauge his reaction to her question.

"An old friend, one that's in a right bloody mess, ever heard of the Immortal," Spike stated quickly with a bored shrug of his shoulders before Angel could speak as he sat down on the foot of the bed that Faith had been sleeping in as she was now sitting in the chair beside Wesley's bed. Kate, Gwen, and Connor all looked back at first Spike and then Angel with looks on their faces that told him instantly that they hadn't a clue who he was.

"Consider yourself lucky, he's this demon…we think, anyway he's says that he's Immortal and he's been around for longer than either Angel or Spike, he's Buffy's new boyfriend but," Nina started to say with a nervous look on her face as she blushed a bit while trying to explain before Mercedes cut in with her teeth gritted and her fists clenched.

"He murdered a friend of mine and tabbed me as the guilty one, now that blonde…Buffy and all of her friends are hot to hunt me down and drive a redwood through my chest," Mercedes grumbled out in explanation as she tried not to let to much bitterness and anger show through into her words before she managed to force a smile across her lips.

"And he's got a penchant for killing anyone that pisses him off," Faith added with a tired but angry scowl on her face as she threw in her two cents on the subject at hand.

"Sounds like a real gentleman, you two must have been real good friends back in the day," Kate stated with a slightly joking smirk on her face as she looked up from Faith and towards Angel, before his look darkened and the smirk slipped instantly from her face.

"Hmm…I smell trouble in paradise, what'd he do anyway," Gwen slipped in with a sarcastic and biting tone to her voice as she sided up next to Angel and winked at him, drawing a scowl from Nina.

"He…," Angel started to say with a very serious look on his face before Spike's gaze caught his and at first he stood there completely confused by the look in his eyes. It wasn't until Spike shifted his gaze to the side a bit and landed it on Connor, with Angel following his line of sight, that Angel understood. "He took something very valuable from us and then rubbed our faces in it," Angel continued with a somewhat hesitant look on his face, as had he been able to blush he would have been doing it terribly, before Spike opened his mouth.

"Though while he was stealing from us he chained me and Angel up in the dungeon for a little bit of torture, let's just say that we didn't take it very well," Spike interjected with an almost bored look on his face smiled calmly at Gwen and Kate.

"He never told me that he knew either one of you, guess he was lying to me from the start," Mercedes groaned with a foolish look of anger on her face as she mentally kicked herself for being so stupid and buying into everything that the Immortal had told her when she first came into his employ all those years ago.

"Join the club luv," Spike joked with a self-mocking grin on his face as he walked over and threw an arm lazily around Mercedes' shoulders before giving her a tight one-arm hug.

"Angel…what did Willow say, about the book," Wesley interrupted weakly with a very tired and weary expression on his face and look in his eyes as he sought to change the subject before he caught the worried look on Faith's face and fell silent.

"It was a no go, she couldn't get close enough to get the book or figure out exactly what the Immortal is, Kennedy ambushed her with the truth about her affair and well…our plans kind of took a back seat," Angel stuttered out with a dark look of seriousness on his face at first before his look grew to one where he wasn't quite sure how to explain the rest of it without being to blunt about it.

"Makes sense, learning that someone that you love has been unfaithful would certainly throw one for a loop, Willow especially with how she throws her heart so completely into every relationship," Wesley said back with a pained sigh as his shoulders slumped a bit and he then hissed in pain and immediately started to reach for a spot on his ribs but Faith was just a bit quicker and her hand was there seconds before his, with a very worried look flashing in her eyes.

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Audrey could tell that they were watching her. Despite the fact that she hadn't had the formal training that Buffy had received she had spent a lot of time on the streets after her recovery and with her heightened slayer senses few could sneak up on her. She thought about blowing their cover and informing them that she knew that they were there but she thought that she'd see just how good they were first. She led them on a long chase through the city, making her pursuers think that she was just out on a run. When she finished she slipped out of sight into an alleyway and waited.

"Where'd she go," Vi asked with a nervous look on her face as she raced up to where they had last seen Audrey and began to look all around.

"Who cares, I say that we call it a night," Rhona replied with a bored and tired yawn as she stopped running beside Vi and leaned back up against the wall.

"What about Xander," Vi asked with a scared look on her face as she stopped looking around long enough to look back at Rhona.

"What about him," Rhona shot back with an unhappy scowl on her face as she crouched down and tried to calm her breathing down.

"He told us to keep track of her, we were supposed to see where she lives," Vi reluctantly replied with a nervous look of desperation on her face as she climbed up a few rungs of a nearby fire escape.

"We'll just tell him that she lives in some rundown apartment building, he'll believe us…or he'll believe you," Rhona grumbled back with a sigh and shrug of her shoulders as she stood back up before she grinned back at Vi as she finished speaking.

"I do not have a crush on Xander," Vi exclaimed with an upset scowl on her face as she jumped down off of the fire escape and glared at Rhona, who at first only replied with a smile.

"Oh…so it's Xander now to huh, having a crush on Andrew wasn't enough," Rhona jabbed in with an amused smirk on her face as she couldn't help but rib her best friend a little.

"I don't like either one okay, come on…let's go," Vi exploded with an angry tone to her voice, though her face was beet red with embarrassment, before she stomped her foot and started off back towards the hotel.

"That girl has issues," Rhona mumbled out sarcastically under her breath while shaking her head before she hurried off, easily catching up, never looking back to see Audrey step back out of the alley and begin to follow them.

END OF CHAPTER 26

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, let's keep em coming. Anyway this was a middle chapter that got Kate and Groo and Connor and that group to meet Angel and the others and get acquainted with what's going on. Roger knows about Wesley being hurt and almost seems to care about him, though he doesn't show it much. I kind of always felt kind of sorry for Vi in the series, sure until the end she was the wallflower, with at the end she was barking orders like a drill instructor, but I see her as the quiet character that Willow used to be, besides I needed some romance or attempts at it other than my main ones. I had Kate know about Spike because of her studies about Angelus, with me guessing that in all that she read Spike would have been at least written about a little bit. After the dream Faith was mostly healed, though she still felt like she had been put through a wringer, her whole body hurt and she was lightheaded. She was out of immediate danger but it'll still take her awhile to heal. With Wesley he won't be doing much fighting anytime soon, but then again when has that ever stopped him. Though I did slip a little something by everyone over the last few chapters, something that'll come up again and have some significance after this story is over and if I do a sequel to this story it'll definitely factor in. A few questions though, should I hook Vi up with Xander or Andrew, or neither, should Audrey find love, Kate and Groo, Connor and , Gwen and , should I have Willow forgive Kennedy and them two stay together or should the two be with someone new…as always thanks for reading my story.


	27. Lies In Truth

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 27-LIES IN TRUTH**

"One of us is going to have to start Faith," Wesley said softly with a concerned and nervous look on his face as he shifted a bit in bed and winced at the pain in his chest.

"Don't know what you're talking about, I'm five by five over here," Faith started to mumble back with a somber frown on her face before she went silent as Wesley laid a hand on her arm.

"We both said some things that we're not proud of," Wesley started to say with an anxious expression on his face before Faith pulled away and stared off into space before speaking.

"I don't know about you but I," Faith started to say softly with an almost arrogant tone to her voice before Wesley angrily pushed himself up to a seated position on the bed to argue with her but in doing so pulled out a few of his stitches. His yelp of pain immediately snapped Faith out of her attitude. "Wes," Faith exclaimed with a very worried and scared look on her face as she whipped her head back around towards Wesley and then vaulted out of her chair and up onto the bed until she was kneeling beside him.

"I…I'm…okay," Wesley tried to say out through the pain as he squinted his eyes tightly shut before Faith cut in.

"Fuck that," Faith snapped with an angry look of fear on her face as she cradled Wesley in her arms, even though she knew that he hated it when she treated him like he was breakable. "Let me help you," Faith said with a very determined look on her face as she got herself better situated on the bed and gently laid Wesley back down onto the bed.

"I think, I think I popped a few of the stitches," Wesley choked out through labored breaths, as each and every breath was terribly painful.

"Because of me, if I wasn't so," Faith started to grumble with a look of self-loathing on her face as she closed her eyes and dropped her head.

"Recriminations can wait Faith, neither one of us is blameless, for this argument…or the other one, what if we agree to never speak of it again," Wesley groaned out with a frustrated tone to his voice as he rolled his eyes and then focused his gaze on Faith's eyelashes, relishing in their beauty.

"What good would that do, even if we never say another word about it the fact still remains that all of those months ago I tortured you, it's like in my dream, you're forgiving me when I don't deserve it," Faith replied with an exasperated sigh as she finally pushed her eyes back open and then carefully laid down on the bed beside Wesley until she laid her head on the pillow beside his.

"What dream," Wesley asked with a confused look on his face as he turned his head to the side and looked Faith squarely in the face.

"Huh, it was nothing…forget about it," Faith started to say softly with a very nervous look on her face after having realized that she spoke of the dream.

"No Faith, it obviously affected you enough to mention it to me, and from the fact that you yourself are not still in a hospital bed," Wesley interjected with a very serious and slightly worried look on his face before Faith sighed.

"Okay fine, after the surgery I had this weird ass dream where I bumped into you at a bar, we had some drinks…talked…and then I beat the shit out of you," Faith answered with a very calm and easy going tone of voice and expression on her face at first before at the end she fixed her gaze on Wesley's chin and tried not to tear up.

"What…sorry, but I missed that last bit," Wesley asked with a concerned look on his face as he leaned his head in closer to Faith's until their foreheads were touching. She reluctantly looked up into his eyes.

"I beat the shit out of you, I smashed your face in with my fists, you were trying to tell me that I wasn't a monster, that there was still some good left in me but I didn't want to listen," Faith finally replied with a very guilty look of revulsion on her face, appearing to Wesley almost as if she were about to throw up.

"Alright, and how did this dream end," Wesley wondered softly with a supportive tone to his voice as he bent his left arm at the elbow and tickled the underside of Faith's chin with the tips of his fingers.

"Well I…," Faith started to reply with her usual self-assured tone of voice and smile on her face before she broke. "Okay I threw up until I was dry heaving…then I curled up into a little ball, and wished that I was dead, next thing I knew I'm awake and trying to get to you," Faith continued with a very somber frown on her face as she slowly slid her left hand under Wesley's shirt and began to gently run her hand up his stomach.

"I've heard of things such as this, it's rare…but it's been known to happen," Wesley said back with a thoughtful look on his face as his mind went to work trying to remember how many times he had heard of something like this happening.

"So you think I'm going crazy then," Faith remarked with a joking smile on her face though Wesley could see the look of fear in her eyes, almost as if she wasn't completely sure that she wasn't going crazy herself.

"No Faith, you're not going crazy…at least no more so than usual," Wesley quipped with at first a serious look on his face, as his fingertips crawled up her chin until they tapped on her lips and then tugged on her lower lip, before his calm exterior broke out into a relieved grin and he leaned in close for a kiss.

"Cool," Faith mumbled softly, almost in a whisper, before she quickly kissed Wesley's fingertips and then moved on to his lips.

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"You're not going to stake me are you," Mercedes asked with a concerned look on her face as she looked up from her bottle of pop and saw Willow looking straight at her. After the talk with Kate and Gwen and the others Mercedes had retreated to the first empty waiting room that she could find. She had hoped to be alone there, but Willow had other plans.

"It depends," Willow softly replied with a very serious look on her face as she stayed where she was and kept staring at Mercedes.

"On what," Mercedes said back with a confused and scared look on her face as she brought the bottle up to her lips and took a drink.

"On the answers that I get from you," Willow answered with a slightly less serious look on her face before she stepped fully inside the room and shut the door behind her.

"Okay shoot…figuratively speaking," Mercedes replied at first with an at ease smile on her face before she nearly choked on the pop when the idea struck her that Willow might do just that.

"I only have one question…why," Willow asked softly after pacing back and forth silently for several moments. Her voice was without malice or anger.

"Honestly…he told me to, The Immortal, until that day I could have cared less about her," Mercedes started to answer with a timid look in her eyes as she knew how powerful Willow was because of more than just the little altercation earlier in the day. "I was supposed to split the two of you up, why…I'm not really sure, I have some ideas but until Kristine's death it really didn't matter," Mercedes continued with a somber frown that turned into a pout as her shoulders slouched and she dropped her gaze down to the threads on the bottle of pop that she was holding. The muscles of Willow's jaw clenched tightly before she restored calm within herself and spoke.

"Do you," Willow started to say with an anxious and nervous feeling in her stomach as she turned to fully face Mercedes and do her best to keep her word and not stake her on sight.

"Love her…no, sure the sex is great but, it's not what the two of you had…have, before we came back here when she found me at Kristine's apartment I told Kennedy that she had to make a choice, if she wants to try and work things out with you that's fine with me, I'll hit the road and not look back just as soon as The Immortal is dead," Mercedes let slip out at first with a surprised look sent Willow's way before she dropped the look and grew much more serious, making sure to Willow that she knew that it was the truth, and no game.

"And if she wants to be with you," Willow asked with a terrified feeling in her stomach as her whole body tensed up at the thought of it.

"Then she'd better figure that out in a hurry, because after he's dead and I leave Rome she lost her chance, so it's really not up to me is it, it's up to her," Mercedes calmly replied with an almost bored shrug of her shoulders before she took another drink, swallowing loudly.

"But what about what you want, I don't believe that all you want is just to kill The Immortal," Willow shot back with an unconvinced scowl on her face as she took a step back into the shadows so that her expressions would remain hidden to Mercedes.

"You wanna know what I don't believe, I find it funny that even after you know how much of a bastard The Immortal is you still go back there and act like everything's hunky dory, he killed Kristine, he's the one that kidnapped and then tortured Wesley and Faith, he doesn't love Buffy…he never did, I don't think he's capable of loving anything or anyone…other than himself," Mercedes snapped back with a tone of voice that seemed to suggest that Mercedes was not going to allow herself to be talked down to and be the only one feeling scared and nervous in the conversation.

"You may be right, but if we reveal what we know then he's likely to hurt someone…badly, is that what you want," Willow said back with a confidant look on her face before her tone grew more skeptical.

"You've asked me that twice now, all I want is to kill The Immortal and then split town, where I go after here is completely open to suggestion," Mercedes groaned back with a bored and frustrated scowl on her face as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"What about your soul, if you get that back everything will change, it changes you…trust me, I've seen it twice, Spike and Angel nearly couldn't handle it, what makes you so sure that it won't destroy you," Willow wondered with an accurate look of concern on her face as she posed a question that Mercedes really hadn't thought about much. She wasn't completely sure what she expected to happen afterwards if she were to regain her soul. She had heard stories of what happened to a vampire after they got their soul back but since it had only happened twice she hadn't really been sure who to believe.

"Well I…hadn't really thought about it, I've heard so many different stories about what it's like that I don't know what to believe," Mercedes answered softly with a dumb blonde look on her face as she tried not to let it show how short sighted her thoughts had been.

"Then shut up and listen, because I'm only going to tell you this once," Willow said with an awkward sigh, as if to say that she didn't know why she was doing this but something inside of her was saying that it was the right thing to do. All of that before she sat down in the chair straight across from Mercedes and began to tell her everything that she knew about what happened to Angel and Spike after their souls were returned to them.

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"So what now oh glorious leader," Spike asked with a mocking smirk on his face as he turned away from half listening to Willow and Mercedes' conversation to look past Connor and at his grandsire.

"Stop calling me that," Angel snapped with an upset pout on his face as he angrily ran his hands through his hair and then turned away, receiving a concerned look from Nina.

"What else am I supposed to call you, Peaches," Spike quipped back with a less than enthusiastic frown on his face as the tension of the moment was beginning to get to him.

"I'm staying here, I'm not going back to the hotel," Dawn suddenly announced with a very calm and serious look on her face as she sat up in her seat beside Connor on the small couch in the lobby before both Angel and Spike focused their gazes on her.

"What do you mean, you have to go back, you can't stay here, it's not safe," Kate asked with a pointed look of disbelief on her face as she pushed off of the wall and stepped up beside Angel.

"I can't do it, I can't go back there and continue to lie through my teeth to everyone and say that I don't have a clue where Angel is or what he's doing, I won't lie to Buffy anymore, she deserves to know who The Immortal really is, she's not in love with him…she's in love with you," Dawn answered softly with a very serious and thought out edge to her voice as she slowly looked around at every starting with Angel and ending up with Spike, making sure that he was looking at no one but her when she finished speaking.

"From your mouth to," Spike started to mumble out very softly with a suddenly very depressed and somber pout on his face before Gwen butted in.

"Look girlie, I really don't care if you stay or not, but the truth is that this Immortal guy has found you twice and he's almost killed a couple of you, I have a few penthouses scattered around Rome that would at least provide a bit of safety, besides which that they all have a private security force that answers only to me," Gwen interjected with a very frustrated and bored scowl on her face as she leaned up against Angel just right enough that Nina looked ready to slap her silly before Angel shrugged Gwen off and began pacing around the room.

"That could work, but Wesley will probably still need some help getting around," Angel started to say with a very deep in thought look on his face before he was interrupted from the doorway.

"Got it covered Angel," Faith interjected from the door with her arms crossed as she slowly set foot inside the room, looking a bit ragged.

"Are you sure," Kate asked with a concerned and not completely agreeable look on her face as she looked over at Faith.

"I can have one of the nurses tell me everything that I'll need to know, so far all they've done is fix his stitches and give him some medicine, I'm not a doctor but even I can do that," Faith replied with a very serious and determined look on her face as she glared sharply back at Kate, before looking over towards Angel. The room stayed silent for a few moments before Gwen shrugged her shoulders.

"Looks like Wesley's covered, so…what do you think," Gwen asked with a bored smirk on her face as she turned back to Angel, ignoring the glare that Nina was sending her way.

"Seems okay to me," Spike offered with a relaxed shrug of his shoulders as he met Angel's gaze before sitting up fully in his seat and looking over at Dawn.

"I don't know, it all sounds kind of," Dawn started to say with a concerned look on her face as she looked to Spike before she was interrupted by Gwen.

"It has a hot tub the size of a Volvo in every suite, big screen televisions as well," Gwen stated with a sly smirk on her face as she looked down at Dawn and slid a hand into her pocket to pull out her cell phone.

"Cool…let's go," Dawn announced with a tired but eager smile on her face as she started to get up out of her seat but stopped halfway up when Angel spoke.

"No one's going anywhere until I say so, we've already tried the safe house route and look where it got us, right back in the hospital with Wesley and Faith being lucky to be alive, we might not be so lucky next time," Angel interjected with a very stern and grim scowl on his face as he turned back around to face everyone.

"What if we divided our forces," Groo asked with a curious look on his face as his mind was already strategizing out possible attack patterns.

"Division of power is not a wise strategy, we would be severely weakened," Illyria stated with an almost bored look on her face as if she found the whole idea of deciding what to do tedious.

"Thank you Illyria…do I even want to know where you've been all this time," Angel replied with a somber look of exhaustion on his face as he let out a sigh and wiped a hand over his face in frustration.

"I was experiencing humanity, you are very weak," Illyria answered with a less than pleased pout on her face before she noticed that everyone was in the room and not guarding Wesley and Faith's room and silently left to fill that duty.

"Are you sure that it's safe to let her guard the door, I kept quiet about it earlier but," Kate started to softly whisper to Angel as she walked up beside him and leaned in close so that he would be the only one that would hear her.

"I may not like it but Wesley and Faith are safest with her protecting the door, she would have to cease to be before she'd let anyone hurt them," Angel whispered back softly under his breath before Gwen whirled back around on him and stared straight through him.

"Well…we don't have much time, if we're going to do this then we'd better do it now before word gets out that you're here, once that happens The Immortal and his men will be here quickly and this whole save the world mission that you're on will all blow up in your face," Gwen stated with a very clear and serious look on her face as she kept staring straight ahead at Angel before she finished and checked her watch.

"It would be better than slumming around in rundown homes and warehouses," Spike said with a somberly hopeful expression on his face as he bumped elbows with Dawn and then looked up to Angel.

"Groo and I could draw his men out into a fight, we wouldn't have to do very much," Connor offered with an interested smirk on his face as he and Groo made a short bit of eye contact and the Pylean seemed interested in the idea as well.

"What good would that do," Nina asked with a confused and unsure look on her face as she sat up in her seat and turned to Connor.

"Give us the time that we'd need to move everyone to Gwen's suite's," Angel answered with a very deep in thought look on his face as he started to pace along the far wall of the room.

"Though it would also show our hand, they'd know that we had some help, it might be smarter to let someone else do it, like Blue, at least they know about her, if we're lucky she might even draw Buffy and the council into the fray, keep them busy," Spike replied with a calm and relaxed body posture as he slowly stood up and gestured back towards where Illyria had left the room.

"I think it's a good bet that they already know that we're here, if the Immortal and his men do then it's a good bet that Wolfram and Hart does as well," Nina said with a very concerned look on her face as she stood up and walked over to Angel, finally laying a hand on his arm and getting him to stop pacing and look at her.

"We're going, Spike…go get Willow and Mercedes while I get them to release Wesley and Faith," Angel started to say with a very commanding tone to his voice as he looped an arm around Nina and drew her close.

"Good, I'll make all the arrangement, I hope you like riding in a limo," Gwen replied with a pleased expression on her face as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and started to dial.

"Better tell them to find a shady spot to pick us up in, we have three vamps that need their shade, and we can't do this fast, I won't rush Wesley," Faith said to Gwen with a very clear and serious look on her face as she walked up and leaned forward on the back of the couch with her hands supporting her up so that she could stay on Gwen's eye level.

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, I'm a thief…secrecy is my forte," Gwen snapped back with an impatient frown on her face before she glared at Faith and turned away, already making the plans.

END OF CHAPTER 27

Author's Notes: The talk between Willow and Mercedes was needed to me as Willow needed to know a few things about why Kennedy would cheat on her, and why with Mercedes. Kind of a confronting the other woman moment. Willow still isn't completely comfortable around Mercedes or Illyria, though she knows what's important and is doing her best to put the mission ahead of her own feelings. Mercedes didn't know the exact details of what had happened to Angel and Spike. She knew that they had their souls but that's about it. I could see the demon community being rife with stories of how it happened, some honest ones and others being as far fetched as a story can get, with many of them being outright lies. So Mercedes wouldn't know who to believe. Wesley and Faith had to have a talk about the fight that ended up putting them both in the hospital. I tried to keep Faith a bit distant as she truly wanted to make up with Wesley but her fears started to creep in. Then he pushed himself to hard and she kicked herself for causing him to and got all protective of him. Basically I'm trying to show that Faith is changing and growing up, being able to put someone else's needs ahead of her own. Sure Wesley was surprised by her story about the dream but I could see the dream thing happening before, not to often but the Buffy and Angel universe is strange enough that it's possible to have happened, and if it had then chances are Wesley would have read about it somewhere. The last part is Gwen trying to get Angel to bring everyone to her group of apartments that she uses when she's in Rome. It takes some persistence on her part but in the end Angel agrees because he really doesn't have another choice, Wesley needs the time and safety to heal up and he needs time to regroup and plan ahead. Though Buffy and the council and all weren't in this chapter much at all they'll be back next chapter, maybe even with a little bit of romance, though not from the Immortal as the sooner I can kill him off the better, though knowing him he probably won't go down alone. So in closing I'm open to thoughts from readers and reviewers alike, anything that you'd like to see, character pairings. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.


	28. New Digs And Fights

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 28-NEW DIGS AND FIGHTS**

She swore that she had died and gone to heaven. Through her days Faith had stayed at a few posh hotels. But none of them even came close to the honeymoon suite that Gwen had set aside for Wesley and Faith. She had told Faith it was because in her eyes she thought that the two were halfway there already. Though in truth she had given them the suite because the bed was large, enough room for Wesley to sleep comfortably and Faith to be close by, there was a large fireplace in the room, to keep it warm instead of how cold it was when they arrived and because it was next to the fire escape. Faith had helped Wesley through a shower, mostly a sponge bath, as he still had to many bandages to take a full shower. She had been shown how by an overly eager nurse that Faith could tell was having thoughts of giving her the sponge bath the entire time that she was explaining it. After she had made sure that Wesley was comfortable she had tore through the shower herself, hoping to wash away all of the aches and pains of the last few days. It hadn't been a fairy tale as she was still more than a bit sore, in more places than she at first realized but by the end she was feeling refreshed.

"Everything okay," Faith asked softly with a concerned tone to her voice as she picked up a towel and walked out of the bathroom, starting to dry herself off as she went.

"Of course, the lights were to bright," Wesley calmly replied with a tired yawn as he gingerly sat on the edge of the bed staring at the warm fire burning in the hearth, giving off the only light in the large room as he had shut the lights off as well.

"Sorry…I didn't think about," Faith started to say back with a guilty expression on her face as she half smacked herself for not thinking of it before Wesley broke in.

"Neither did I, but everything's okay now right," Wesley joked back with a happy smirk on his face as Faith stopped drying herself off and draped the towel over her shoulder.

"Five by five," Faith whispered back huskily with a relieved but excited grin on her face as she slid around the banister closest to Wesley, using as if it were a stripper's pole, before she kept one hand on it, tilted her hips to one side and made sure that Wesley was looking exactly where she wanted him to.

"You have a dirty mind," Wesley stated with a very matter of fact tone of voice as he slid his glasses off and set them on the nightstand. He had been wearing them while trying to read the label on one of the bottles of pills that he had been given before leaving the hospital.

"Oh really, who has the dirtier mind here huh, I'm thinking you," Faith shot back with a cocky grin on her face as she threw her head back a bit and laughed at Wesley for a bit before she stopped and let her towel fall to the floor as she stepped closer.

"You are going to be the death of me woman," Wesley said with a mock bit of sarcasm in his voice as he did his best to look at Faith with a disapproving scowl etched onto his visage. However that ended up only seeming to make Faith enjoy their game that much more.

"Not in this lifetime," Faith snapped with a naughty grin on her face as she straddled Wesley's lap and moved in for a kiss.

"Is that a promise," Wesley started to ask with an impish smile on his face and excited twinkle in his eyes before their lips met.

"Fuck yeah," Faith snickered back with an angry scowl on her face as she reached up and gently ran the pad of her thumb along his bottom lip.

"You know I'm," Wesley started to whisper back with an unsure look on his face as he averted his gaze from her face while sliding both hands down the length of Faith's legs from her knees to her butt before he squeezed hard, earning a surprised hiss.

"I can do gentle," Faith growled back in an angry pout as she slowly lowered them both down the bed and lost the rest of the night in the firelight.

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"Any bets on what they're doing in there," Dawn asked with an impish smirk on her face as she sat, with her legs crossed under her, on the couch beside Spike as he stared solemnly into the fire.

"Thought Joyce already had the birds and the bee's talk with you," Spike started to ask with a subdued look of surprise on his face before Dawn popped a marshmallow into her mouth, turned to him and grinned wide.

"At least some of us are having some fun tonight," Mercedes grumbled with an unhappy frown on her face as she sat in the chair beside Spike, wishing that she could feel the warmth of the fire on her skin like she had when she was still alive.

"This isn't about having fun, it's about staying alive, living to fight another day," Angel said back with a very gloom and doom expression on his face as he sat low in his chair, staring straight into the fire even though Nina was curled up in his lap, looking like she was moments away from falling asleep.

"Maybe for you it is, all I want is," Mercedes started to grumble back with a childish pout on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled at Angel out of the corner of her eye before Groo stoked the fire up a bit. Even though it really wasn't that cold in the room they had started a roaring fire, mostly due to Dawn begging Spike for it.

"To reek your holy vengeance against The Immortal for killing Kristine, we know…you've only said it about a million times," Dawn mumbled out through a mouthful of marshmallows, receiving a death glare from Mercedes at the end.

"Here Dawn, have another marshmallow," Willow said softly with an impatient frown on her face before she shoved another large marshmallow into Dawn's mouth, effectively silencing the key.

"Have you found anything yet," Connor asked with a bored look on his face as he got tired of closely studying a marshmallow and popped it into his mouth.

"Nothing that we don't already know," Willow sadly replied as she shook her head, ignoring the glare that Dawn was sending her way as she was valiantly chewing away in the hope of emptying her mouth quickly.

"We should all turn in for the night and start fresh tomorrow," Groo offered with an optimistic and hopeful smile on his face as he set the poker back down in front of the fireplace and started to head towards the door.

"Where the bloody hell are you off to in such a," Spike started to grumble softly with a confused look on his face before Mercedes chuckled and leaned in close.

"Can't you smell it," Mercedes snickered out softly under her breath into Spike's ear before a slight grin was seen on his lips.

"Moving on…Dawn, what did you tell Buffy, I don't think that she was to happy about you and Willow not coming back tonight," Angel said softly with a not very enthusiastic frown on his face as he tried to remain calm.

"It was easier than I thought, okay so I didn't actually speak to Buffy directly…but I left her a message saying that we were spending the night with one of Willow's contacts, we've done it before," Dawn started to reply with a sheepish smile of pride on her face before Willow interjected.

"Twice Dawn…we've only done it twice in over a year," Willow stated with a look of disbelief that Dawn had used that excuse before she went back to typing away on the laptop that Gwen had provided.

"But will that work, won't she want to call the contact back…just to make sure," Gwen asked with an anxious expression on her face as she hoped that Buffy wasn't the overprotective type.

"And thus the proverbial fly in the ointment is revealed," Spike joked with a grimly amused smirk on his face before he leaned over and gave Dawn a one armed hug.

"We're so screwed," Dawn mumbled out sadly with a very unhappy pout on her face as she lowered her hand, which held a marshmallow and had been at her mouth, to her side and hung her head.

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"I'm sure they're fine Buffy, we all heard the message, they're staying with one of Willow's contacts," Xander said softly with a supportive tone to his voice as he sat down at the small table and poured some milk into his bowl of cereal. Buffy had made Giles, Xander, Andrew, and even Robin listen to Dawn's message and assure her that everything would be alright. She had decided that it was best not to take any chances with Angel and Mercedes out and about.

"They'll probably be back before lunch, in the meantime we really should be focusing our efforts on finding this Mercedes, from what The Immortal has given me she's about half as old as…she's around sixty years old, known for being a maverick, can become very emotional, and if she wants to can disappear into the Rome nightlife for days on end," Giles replied with a tired look on his face at first before he corrected himself rather than speak Spike's name, as though he had finally admitted to Dawn that he had accepted that Buffy did indeed have feelings for the blue eyed dyed blonde vampire he wasn't ready to admit that it was love.

"She sounds a lot like Spike," Kennedy stated with a calm look on her face as she set about fishing in the refrigerator for something to eat.

"Almost makes you wonder if they…does the information point us towards anywhere that she frequents," Buffy mumbled out softly under her breath at first with a somber expression on her face before she switched gears and went on with the current mission at hand.

"Her file says that she does enjoy a pint after work, she stays away from most of the more upscale restaurants and clothing stores, is not a very big jewelry fan, and um…frequents the club scene, of all orientations," Giles answered with a very hard look of concentration on his face, as if he were trying to come up with a battle plan while explaining things, before he became a bit flustered at the end.

"Tell me about it, I swear she's been in every bar, club, strip joint, and brothel in Rome," Kennedy started to reply with a curious half smirk on her face before Xander cut in.

"You'd know wouldn't you," Xander exclaimed through a cough that he tried to cover it with, not hiding the angry tone of his voice.

"What's that supposed to mean," Kennedy angrily snapped back as she jerked her head out of the refrigerator and looked ready to rip Xander's head off before Buffy sensed the open hostility and jumped up in between them.

"You know damn," Xander started to grumble back with a frustrated and angry scowl on his face before he was cut off by Buffy.

"That's enough Xander, you and Giles will check out the restaurants and retail shops while Kennedy and I…check out the rest," Buffy snapped back at Xander at first before she grew a bit flushed at the job selection for herself.

"Are you sure about this Buffy, it might be wiser if Xander and I checked out these clubs while the two of you," Giles asked with a nervous look on his face as he could tell that this was all getting to Buffy and felt the need to help her out if he could.

"Right, the two of you wouldn't last five minutes…you'd stick out like a sore thumb, besides…I'm the only one that knows which clubs Mercedes liked to frequent, and if we do find her it'd be better if I do the talking, she'll listen to me, or at least she won't see me and run like if she saw any of you," Kennedy stated with a very clear and joking tone to her voice at first before she calmed down a bit and explained her rationality.

"Why would she run, if she's innocent like you say then there shouldn't be any reason why she wouldn't want to talk to us," Xander asked with a very pointed and threatening tone to his voice as he turned around in his chair and looked over at Kennedy.

"Maybe because she knows your history Xander, with you everyone except for your immediate friends are guilty until proven guilty, you can never admit that you're wrong, Mercedes did not attack Kristine and she did not kill her, you can hate me all you want, but I'm not wrong," Kennedy snapped back with a heavy dose of intentional sarcasm in her voice as she did her best to glare a hole straight through Xander before grabbing an apple out of the basket on the counter and storming out of the room past Robin, Rhona, and Vi.

"What's her problem," Vi asked with a confused look on her face as she tried unsuccessfully to cure herself of bad bed hair.

"You mean today…or in general, that girl always has a problem," Rhona joked back with a relaxed grin on her face before she walked over to the refrigerator, not noticing Robin's gaze following her.

"Anything new," Robin asked softly with an emotionless tone to his voice as he turned his gaze from Rhona to those at the table.

"As of yet no, though we were planning our strategy for the day," Giles began to say with a calm look on his face as he collected the files, snatching one away from a pouting Xander, before he was interrupted by Buffy.

"We're going to split up and hit all of Mercedes' hot spots, she's bound to revisit one of them and when she does we'll get her, but if not at least we'll find out more about her," Buffy interjected with a helpful smile on her face as she sat back down at the table and stole away a few pieces of Xander's cereal.

"I checked around last night, from what I've seen I doubt to many that knew her are going to tell you much of anything, your boyfriends influence reaches an awful lot of people, they wouldn't dare say a word against someone that worked for him…let alone the actual Immortal," Robin said back with a kind smile on his face as he walked over and picked up another of the apples from the basket on the counter and then took a bite.

"What makes you say that," Buffy asked with a concerned look on her face as she slowly got up from the table and headed his way.

"Have you looked around Buffy, your boyfriend is pretty popular around here…popular enough that I think that he could get away with anything and no one would be the wiser, you sure can find the gems," Robin replied with a none to pleased expression on his face before took another bite of the apple.

"That wasn't very nice," Vi stated with an unhappy frown on her face as she found what she was looking for in the refrigerator and pulled her head back out and shut the door.

"You're right it wasn't, but it was the truth right, two master vampires, a government soldier, Dracula, and now the Immortal, a guy that you really know very little about, you don't even know what he's capable of," Robin joked back at first with a relaxed smile on his face before his expression grew serious as he explained himself.

"And you're saying that you do," Giles piped up from his seat at the table as he didn't like where the conversation appeared to be heading and he was hoping to keep the discussion civil.

"Not completely, but I do know that he's not the boy scout that you all seem to think that he is, there's a lot of evidence linking him to some of the worst crimes in this cities history, and not in a good way, think about that," Robin replied with a very serious look on his face as he continued to chew on the apple before he shifted his weight to his other foot, turned, and left the room.

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"Feeling any better," Mercedes asked softly with a nervous look on her face as she plopped down in the chair next to him.

"A little, mostly I'm just stiff," Wesley replied softly with an uncomfortable grimace on his face as he tried to get himself comfortably situated on the couch with as little movement as possible.

"I'm sure that we could find some way to remedy that, but since you're staring at me like I've grown a second head I'll take that as a no," Mercedes said back with at the beginning an amused and excited half smirk on her face before her face fell as she tried to hide her disappointment and switch subjects.

"That would be the wisest course of action for you to take right now," Wesley said softly with a nervous look on his face as he watched Mercedes wring her hands like a scolded child would.

"Forget about it, stupid idea anyway," Mercedes mumbled back softly with an unhappy pout on her face as she looked away towards the fire as Willow walked into the room carrying the laptop that Gwen had loaned her and with an apple in her mouth.

"Breakfast on the go," Wesley asked with an impish grin on his face as he looked up at Willow and watched as she sat down beside him on the couch and blushed.

"Yeah, how are you feeling," Willow replied with a content smile on her face at first before she grew serious as she leaned a bit closer to Wesley.

"Five by five," Wesley joked with a cheesy tone to his voice as he half shrugged his shoulders before Faith clamped her hands down onto them.

"Looks like I'm starting to rub off on you Wes, not sure if that's a good or bad thing," Faith said with a curious look on her face as she nodded her head in greetings to Willow but ignored Mercedes.

"Let's hope it's a good thing, though speaking of breakfast…I could really use a nice hot cup of," Mercedes added with an anxious look on her face before she was interrupted by Willow.

"Spike was heating some blood up when I left the kitchen, if you hurry you might be able to have some of his," Willow offered up with a helpful look on her face before she took another bite of her apple and looked down at the computer screen.

"Sounds good, since I'm not wanted here," Mercedes said softly with a restrained tone of anger in her voice before she got up and left the room, but not before sending Faith a glare and a wink Wesley's way.

"Got that right," Faith grumbled under her breath as she rounded the end of the couch and plopped down in the chair that Mercedes had just vacated.

"Is Angel up yet, I want to talk to him," Wesley started to say with a serious tone to his voice as he sat up a bit straighter in his seat before being cut off.

"You're not helping Wes, you're still to banged up," Faith stated with a very clear and determined look on her face as she sat up straight on the front edge of her seat, looking straight at Wesley.

"I know that Faith, I meant that even though I won't be able to physically assist you all in the fight I shouldn't just sit on my hands, at the very least I can help plan the strategy or be used as a decoy to draw someone like Giles out of the office," Wesley said back with a serious and impatient look on his face as he reached out and laid a hand on Faith's knee, not noticing the happy smirk that momentarily graced Willow's face as she watched.

"How would that help us, Giles doesn't work for the Immortal," Faith asked with an unconvinced expression on her face as she laid her hand over top of Wesley's on her knee and began to idly run her thumb up and down the side of Wesley's index finger.

"That's true, however if Wesley could get Giles out of the office then I could lead Buffy and Xander somewhere else…say a mall or someplace like that for a few hours, maybe even get the Immortal to go with us, then you and Mercedes could slip in…get her soul and get out, all while Angel and Spike get that book so that Wesley and I can finish translating the first one," Willow said back with a deep in thought look on her face at first as she leaned back in her seat and stared off into space before she turned back to Wesley and Faith and looked mighty proud of herself.

"Would ya look at that Wes, who needs Angel when we have super Will here comin up with the plan," Faith joked with a sly grin on her face as she lightly slapped the back of Wesley's hand and then shot her grin over towards Willow, causing the witch to drop her gaze to the floor and blush.

"Hey, I heard that," Angel interjected with a morose pout on his face as he walked into the room with a cup of steaming hot blood in his hands.

END OF CHAPTER 28

Author's Notes: This chapter is mostly about Angel and his group setting up camp at Gwen's loft apartments. She has enough room for everyone and they can be secluded away from the rest of the people living in the building. After the sponge bath that she gave to Wesley Faith took a shower herself and then the two started to have sex but her injuries and the long day caught up with Faith and before long both were sound asleep. I put in the bit with Spike and Willow stuffing Dawn's face with marshmallow's as a way of shutting her up, adding a pinch of humor to the mix and imho it would be something that could happen in the Buffy universe. Even though Buffy and Willow haven't killed her for having the affair yet that doesn't mean that Kennedy will get off easily, as shown by Xander and his chance to let his feelings on the subject be known. Robin comes in and leers at Rhona for a bit, part of the reason that he and Faith split up way back when, before he tries to see how much Buffy and Giles know about the situation. Earlier Buffy didn't have a problem with hitting the gay bars with Kennedy in the hopes of finding information about Mercedes, it was just something that wasn't high on her list of places to visit in Rome. Robin's questions have gotten them all to start thinking that perhaps they don't know the Immortal as well as they think that they do. The last bit with Mercedes and Wesley with Faith coming in is that basically Mercedes has the hots for a number of people, Kennedy, Spike, Faith, and Wesley being chief among them. Willow does have the ability to come up with a good plan on her own so I put that in at the end and Angel's words weren't meant to be in anger it was more his usual way to try to cover up for his wounded pride a bit, but in the end he'd agree that Willow had a sound plan, all in all a semi light hearted moment for Angel. So again thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.


	29. Late Nights In Rome

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 29-LATE NIGHTS IN ROME**

Buffy remained motionless as the Immortal got up out of bed and walked to his bathroom. She wasn't quite sure exactly how it had happened but after trekking around Rome most of the night with Kennedy she had intended to just check in with him and make sure that they still had a date for the following Monday. Hours later she found herself lying naked in his bed with the blankets wrapped tightly around her body as she lay on her stomach watching the minutes tick by on the clock on the nightstand. The search with Kennedy had given them nothing, other than the knowledge that when she was on Mercedes could hit almost every club in town, starting at some even before the sun had set. She had intended to call Giles and ask him if Willow and Dawn had returned but having sex with the Immortal had gotten in the way. Usually on their nights together she would feel almost refreshed afterwards, glad to be with a man that could walk out in the sunlight and not burn up, a man that had a heartbeat. But at the moment she felt empty inside, almost as if she had betrayed someone by having sex with her boyfriend. At the climax of their lovemaking she remembered almost making the ultimate mistake, screaming out the name of a former lover. She had started to scream out his name but somehow caught herself just in time and ended up mumbling out a low sound that reminded her of a tire going flat by losing all of the air.

She couldn't remember how they had gone from speaking quietly in his office to a night together in his bedroom, her memory from shortly after having walked into his office until now was oddly a bit fuzzy. She started to sit up before she heard the sound of her cell phone vibrating. Frantically she slid off the edge of the bed, flinging her blouse and pants back behind her before she found the phone. Giles was on the other end and explained to her that Willow and Dawn had yet to come back and neither had called in. He said that Xander was ready to visit every one of Willow's contacts but Buffy jumped the gun and said that she'd do it. It was a few hours before sunrise when Buffy hurriedly threw her clothes back on and raced out of the room. The Immortal would walk back in moments later to find himself alone.

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Helay there comfortably on the rug in front of the fire. Faith had initially been surprised when she had walked out of the bathroom a few hours earlier to find Wesley lying on some blankets on top of the rug. He had used the fluffier sheets and the comforter to pad the ground beneath him and as she approached he had seemed to be in the thick of sifting through the large book that Spike had stolen from the Immortal days before.

"I thought you said that you couldn't translate that without the other book," Faith asked softly with a bored look on her face as she sat down on the side of the bed and for the first time noticed just how high up the bed was as her tiptoes barely touched the floor.

"Not anything important, but what I can translate could still prove very valuable," Wesley replied with a very determined look on his face as he leaned over a bit and studied a particular passage very closely.

"Looking for a needle in a haystack then," Faith shot back with a bit of sarcasm in her voice as she leaned over and snatched the bottle of lotion from off of the nightstand.

"Something like that, I may not be able to translate this book fully however there are several glyphs in this book that I could have sworn that I saw during our imprisonment," Wesley replied with a nervous shrug of his shoulders as he turned back to watch Faith begin to rub some of the lotion onto her legs.

"Yeah…there were a few weird looking marks down there," Faith mumbled back with a very deep in thought expression on her face as she thought back to their being held captive while she continued to apply the lotion to her legs before moving on to moisturize other parts of her body.

"Exactly, we were obviously below ground…but what I don't understand," Wesley started to say back with a concerned look of uncertainty on his face as Faith snapped the cap closed on the lotion bottle and slid off the edge of the bed, relieving herself of her towel as she did so.

"That dungeon didn't look like it was part of the building, like they had built that building on top of something that was already there," Faith added with an eerily nervous frown on her face as she walked over, opened the top drawer in the dresser, and took out the first matching pair of panties and bra that she found.

"Building a newer building on top of the foundation of a much older one isn't anything new, most major city's all over the world do it, New York, Paris, Moscow, London," Wesley said softly with a slight attempt at shrugging his shoulders before he moved just a bit to much and hissed in pain. Faith had just pulled her panties on and clasped her bra on when she reacted, quickly rushing to his side.

"Wesley, are you okay," Faith asked with a very worried look on her face and tone to her voice as she knelt down beside Wesley and laid one hand on his upper back while placing the other on top of the book.

"Five by five," Wesley lied back with a sarcastic grin on his face before he coughed violently for a few seconds.

"I'm going to get Will, just stay there and don't," Faith started to declare with a very serious look on her face as she jumped to her feet, after casting a scared glance towards Wesley, before she got to the door before he found the energy to speak.

"No Faith, I don't need Willow, I just got a little to animated," Wesley stated with a tired and pained tone to his voice as he slowly took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.

"You sure, you don't need anything," Faith asked with an unconvinced light in her eyes as she stared straight at him from the doorway with her right hand on the doorknob.

"I'll be fine with a little rest, though I could use something to drink," Wesley replied with a slight nod of his head before he relaxed enough to smile, something that got Faith to let out a still scared but relieved sigh as she let her hand slide off of the doorknob.

"I think there was still something left over in the mini fridge," Faith said with a calmer but still concerned look on her face as she walked away from the doorway and back towards the bed before she knelt down beside one of the nightstands and opened the door to the small refrigerator.

"Anything," Wesley asked softly with an interested look on his face before the fire made an odd noise and he turned back to make sure that nothing was wrong with it.

"Just a couple of bottles of champagne, guess it's better than nothing," Faith answered softly with a bored shrug of her shoulders before she pulled the largest bottle of champagne out of the refrigerator, shut the door, and then set about uncorking it.

"Just remember that we can't drink all of it as Angel wanted to have a meeting early tomorrow…later on this morning," Wesley informed Faith with a serious look on his face before he set the book back down onto the floor and turned a couple of the pages.

"He can wait, lord knows that he's made everyone else wait plenty of times, besides…we have work to do," Faith joked back with a devilish pout on her face and glint in her eyes as she finally succeeded in popping the cork before she did her best to not spill anything onto the floor.

"We do," Wesley asked with an uncertain look on his face as he cocked an eyebrow up and tried to think what Faith could be thinking.

"Sure…look I know I'm not playing with a full deck up here," Faith said with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face as she tapped her left temple with the mouth of the bottle of champagne before she then went on. "I'm not as smart as you and never will be, but given all of the crazy shit that we've seen and is bound to happen because of Angel's plan maybe it'd be a good idea for you to teach me some of those symbols, it might come in handy," Faith added with a serious look on her face as she made her way back over to Wesley, sat down cross legged on the floor beside him, and then handed him the bottle of champagne as she pulled the large book onto her lap.

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"You own all of this," Connor asked with a surprised and a bit awestruck look on his face as he walked into the kitchen of the main apartment and saw Gwen sitting at the table helping herself to some ice cream.

"Yep," Gwen softly replied, more to tired to argue, as she slowly nodded her head and then slipped the spoon back into her mouth and sucked off the ice cream.

"Wow," Connor mumbled back with a surprised and awkward smile on his face as he pulled a chair out and sat down across the table from Gwen.

"You can say that again kid, not bad for a girl whose parents dumped her with strangers and never looked back," Gwen joked back at first with a proud grin of confidence on her face before Connor could have sworn that he heard a bit of sadness in her voice.

"Doesn't anyone come from a normal home, you know…mom, dad, a family that loves them," Dawn mumbled out with an unhappy pout on her face as she shuffled into the kitchen, squinting at the light above the table, the only one in the room that was on. As she got closer to the table Connor saw that she was tightly clutching a stuffed pig to her chest and trying not to yawn.

"Not anymore kid," Gwen joked back with a grimly amused half smirk on her face before she took another bite of ice cream.

"Can't sleep," Connor asked softly with a concerned look on his face as he looked up from the table at Dawn as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

"How'd ya guess," Dawn quipped back with a tired look on her face as she eyed the ice cream hungrily.

"Because you're awake at three in the morning," Connor replied with an impish grin on his face as he got up from his seat at the table and then got some ice cream for himself and Dawn.

"Good point," Dawn softly said back softly as she blushed more than she had originally intended to and took the spoon that Connor handed to her.

"So what are you going to tell your sister today, she won't buy the you staying with one of Willow's contacts again," Gwen asked without a bit of sarcasm or joking in her voice as she stuck her spoon back into her ice cream.

"Beats me…it's to early to think that hard," Dawn grumbled back with an unhappy pout on her face before she took her first bite of ice cream.

"You're right about that, but maybe you should go back…at least for a little bit, a few hours or so, get what you need, maybe figure out where they're hiding the book that Wesley needs to finish translating the one that we already have," Gwen said with a nervous shrug of her shoulders before she scooped the last bit of ice cream up out of the container and into her mouth.

"Buffy would see through that, she," Dawn started to say with an awkward expression on her face before Gwen cut back in.

"Hasn't your sister ever thought about changing her name…I mean…Buffy, come on, it sounds more like a stripper than a slayer," Gwen asked with a curious glint in her eyes as a bit of sarcasm fell back into her words.

"That doesn't really come up much to be honest," Dawn slowly mumbled with a nervous and slightly disturbed look on her face before she took a big bite of ice cream.

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"I am going to kill her Giles, for real this time," Buffy fumed with a very upset scowl on her face as she paced angrily back and forth just in front of Giles' desk.

"Calm down Buffy, we don't know that anything's wrong yet," Giles offered up with a nervous but hopefully calming tone to his voice as he slowly rose from his chair and did his best to calm the nervous slayer.

"They've been gone for over a day, Dawn said that they were staying the night with one of Willow's contacts, that was yesterday, they should have been back hours ago, or at least called," Buffy quickly replied with a very serious look on her face as she momentarily stopped pacing to glare at Giles and seem as if she was about to wing her cell phone at him.

"You know Willow Buff, you know how she can get so wrapped up in something that she," Xander started to admit with a nervous look on his face before Kennedy spoke up.

"Willow wouldn't just forget to check in, something's going on, maybe they found Angel, or that group that you guys met, the guy that said that he was Angel's son," Kennedy interjected with a very thoughtful pout on her face as she sat on the far side of the room keeping her distance from Xander.

"She would have called if she had found them," Buffy said with a very certain look on her face as she lowered her arm and slid her cell phone back into her pockets.

"Are you sure about that Buffy, if she believed whatever story they fed her, she wouldn't come back until she was sure that she knew what was really going on, who she could trust," Robin explained with an eerily calm look on his face as he stood at the window staring out of it. The entire time that he spoke he never once looked back into the room.

"Is there something that you know that you're not telling us here mister son of a slayer, for better or worse Willow does what is right," Xander offered up with a very concerned look on his face as he turned in his chair to face Robin at the window.

"But what about Dawn, if Willow was tracking something down surely then she wouldn't need Dawn's help, would she," Giles asked with a confused look on his face as he began to look through the open files on his desk.

"No…not unless Dawn manage to talk her into letting her tag along, in an effort to prove herself," Buffy replied with a nervous look on her face as she slowly sat down in the chair beside Xander's.

"Just what we needed, the other Summers sister to try and prove something," Robin mumbled out softly under his breath as he shook his head and turned away from the window. "So where do we stand on finding Mercedes," Robin asked clearly with an interested look on his face as he slowly walked back towards Giles' desk.

"Unfortunately we're still at square one, other than finding out that she loved to party we know very little about her, but sorry to say she's not our only problem at the moment, besides looking for her and Angel there is the problem of a certain pink haired slayer that we are suddenly unable to find any trace of, Rhona and Vi tried have had no luck in their searches so far and I doubt that will change anytime soon," Giles answered softly with a worried sigh as he took of his glasses and then set them down on the desk in front of him.

"We should probably forget about this Audrey for now, she's not important," Robin replied with a slightly haughty expression on his face as he lightly rested his hands on the backs of Buffy and Xander's chairs.

"How can you be so sure, the old council abandoned her before in her moment of need, I will not repeat their mistakes, finding Mercedes is our top priority however doing what we can to help Audrey is also very important," Giles said back with an unconvinced look on his face as he seemed hesitant to focus on only one course of action.

"We could give the job of helping Audrey to Andrew, it doesn't look to dangerous, and he has been wanting more responsibility ever since that fight at the club," Xander offered up with an optimistic expression on his face, though it was more of pushing a pressing problem off on someone else idea rather than fully believing that it was a good idea.

"Vi probably wouldn't have a problem with that," Kennedy joked with a grimly amused smirk on her face as she glowered at mostly being left out of the conversation.

"Even though he is not my first choice to handle this assignment it is the best that we can do on such short notice and with things as they are he's the only one that we can spare," Giles said softly with a very concerned and discouraged tone to his voice as he took out a notepad and began to draft instructions for Andrew to follow.

"What about the thing that killed all of those new slayers, should we be worried about it coming back," Kennedy offered up with a nervous look on her face as he sat up straight and looked to Giles.

"Illyria has not been seen or heard from since that day, presumably she…it, has decided to lay low, if not already left town," Giles answered with a slightly unsure look on his face as he glanced up briefly from his writing.

"Not our top priority," Buffy mumbled out softly with a guilty look in her eyes as she suddenly became very interested in the collar of her blouse.

"But what are we supposed to do if that changes, she made us look like fools the last time we bumped into her," Xander asked with an impatient and scared look on his face as he sat up straight in his chair and turned to Buffy.

"Only because we didn't know anything about her, we thought that it was Fred, now we know different," Buffy started to answer with a nervous look on her face before Robin jumped in.

"But that still doesn't answer the question Buffy, whether we like it or not this Illyria is a force to be reckoned with, and her unpredictability only makes her that much more dangerous," Robin interjected with a very serious look on his face before Kennedy walked over behind him.

"You guys can talk all you want, I'm going to find Mercedes," Kennedy announced with a very clear and determined look on her face before she turned and started towards the door.

"Wait a minute, you can't go all by yourself," Buffy snapped out quickly with a confused tone to her voice as she leapt up out of the chair and turned to face Kennedy.

"Hitting all of her haunts was a good idea, but we screwed up, you were with me, I can find her faster on my own," Kennedy calmly replied with a nervous look in her eyes though confidant tone to her voice before she flung the door open and hurried out the room.

END OF CHAPTER 29

Author's Notes: Gwen is a hard one to write. As to Groo and what the vampires could smell, they can smell lust and all of that and they could tell what's going on a few doors down just by the smell, Groo left because it was late and Kate wanted him to come with her. This chapter starts out in a bad place, I didn't want to have Buffy and the Immortal have sex again but decided that it was inevitable, although in this chapter that's not why she went to see him and in the middle of it she almost screams out Spike's name. Afterwards she's not happy about having slept with him and finds any excuse to get the heck out of there as fast as she can. The Wes and Faith bits beside the fire are partially due to the fact that by firelight Faith(Well okay Eliza to) would look absolutely gorgeous with that sparse amount, or no amount at all, of clothing on. Though I threw a curveball in there and had Wes and Faith just talk and then Wesley try to teach Faith to be able to recognize and decipher a few of the symbols, showing that she wants to change and doesn't want to be the same old Faith for the rest of her life. The ice cream bit was a kind of short bit of talking between characters as they're not sure what their roles are and just kind of a bit of bonding, not a lot but just a little, notice Dawn's stuffed pig to, Mr. Gordo nod. The last bit has Buffy, Giles, Xander, Kennedy, and Robin talking in Giles office and Buffy being mad about Dawn and Willow not being back yet. They discuss their current to do list and their current threats, with Illyria coming to the top of that list as no one has a clue what she'll do, where as with Angel and the others their moves can at least be hoped to be anticipated, Illyria is the unknown element here. Then Kennedy decides to go find Mercedes on her own, since they're close she thinks that she'll have a better time of it than anyone else from the council, Buffy objects obviously but like her Kennedy blows her off and leaves anyway. As always thanks for reading and hope that you liked it. Reviews are appreciated.


	30. A History Lesson

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 30-A HISTORY LESSON**

"Why pink," Nina asked with a nervous look on her face as she turned her head to the side just enough to look over at Audrey as the two were sitting up at the bar. Gwen knew the owner and had slipped him enough to get the bar to themselves for the night. Audrey had finished her shift tending the bar just as they all came in. Rather than leave she slid around to sit on a stool and tried to relax.

"Why not, why do you want to know," Audrey grumbled back with a more annoyed tone to her voice than what she meant it to be and she saw Nina tense up briefly before calming down.

"It's just…different, back in my pottery class a couple of women had blue hair, but no one had pink hair," Nina replied with a subdued tone to her voice as she tried to laugh it all off and relax.

"Cool, honestly I was just kind of going from one color to another before I mixed a couple together and got this, works for me," Audrey said with a slight shrug of her shoulders and a small sigh before she downed another shot.

"Well becoming a brunette wasn't exactly my idea," Nina said softly with a childish pout on her face as she gazed up sadly through her bangs, where at the roots her blonde hair was just starting to come back.

"So why'd you do it then," Audrey asked with an interested expression on her face as she sat up a bit and reached over the bar for a bottle of tequila.

"Trying to avoid being recognized mostly, though I don't think Angel likes me as much since I changed it, he definitely prefers blondes," Nina sulked back with a nervous look on her face as she cast a look back at Angel over her shoulder as he stood by one of the pool tables and was readying his next shot.

"If he's put off by you doing something so small as changing your hair color then maybe he ain't the right one," Audrey stated clearly with a very serious look on her face as she picked up her mug and spun around in her chair until she was facing Angel as he took his next shot.

"I heard that," Angel said softly with a serious scowl of impatience on his face as he kept his eyes fixed on the cue ball as it rolled across the table.

"Damn vampire hearing," Faith quipped with a sly grin on her face as she let her head fall back up against the back of her chair.

"What," Audrey sputtered out with a totally taken by surprise look on her face as she very nearly dropped her mug.

"Probably should have said something earlier ya know Peaches, yeah we're vampires, well Angel and I are, the others are human," Spike replied with an almost bored and relaxed tone to his voice and shrug of his shoulders as he watched Angel's ball miss it's target and he began to set up his own shot.

"Most of the others, you're forgetting me, Faith, and Nina over there," Mercedes added with an amused smirk on her face as she set her sights fully on Audrey, curious to see her reaction.

"Thanks Mercedes," Nina grumbled back with a sharp pout on her face as she glared across the bar at Mercedes, before the latter shrugged her shoulders and took a drink.

"We're not going to harm you, I know that you're a slayer but you don't have to worry about your duty, both Spike and Angel have their souls," Wesley calmly stated with a very non threatening tone to his voice as he rubbed his right thumb down Faith's calf under her pant leg before he slipped it in between her sock and her skin as her feet were resting in his lap.

"That's impossible, vampires don't have their souls, I've had shit for a watcher but at least I know that," Audrey announced with a very concerned and confused look on her face as she slid off the end of her stool and looked like she was trying to make a fight or flight decision.

"Normally you'd be right, but not with these two," Willow said softly with an anxious expression on her face as she put down her tall glass of tea and looked to Angel.

"They're special," Dawn added with an overly cheesy grin on her face as she nodded her head quickly and then laid her head on Spike's shoulder just as he started to bend over to take his shot.

"Damned is more like it," Spike grumbled softly with an unhappy pout on his face as he eyed Dawn with a displeased frown before he straightened up and gave her a one armed hug.

"None of this makes any sense, vampires and whatever the hell you are don't just kick back and play pool," Audrey started to exclaim with a confused look on her face before Kate slid out of her booth and started to explain.

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Kennedy walked quickly, keeping in the shadows as best she could. She guessed that Giles would probably have sent word ahead for several if not all of his contacts to keep an eye out for her and she was not in the mood to get dragged back to council headquarters until she had found Mercedes. She tried several of her haunts but came up with nothing. Growing frustrated she changed her tactics and dropped by the Immortal's office, hoping that Mercedes had taken the high road and wasn't anywhere close by. She slipped in through one of the back doors and avoided allowing anyone to notice that she was there as she made her way through the building towards the Immortal's office. She noticed that the door was open, and the lights were out, and cautiously went inside. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to think of anything that that she might find in here to help her find Mercedes.

"None of this stuff looks familiar," Kennedy grumbled softly to herself with an unhappy and disappointed frown on her face as she started to open and close every drawer of the Immortal's desk. She hadn't gotten to far when she noticed a glint of light out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look at what had caused the glint she saw an odd shaped vase that looked more like one of Giles' science beakers than a vase. Scrunching her face up in wonderment Kennedy slowly climbed up onto the desk underneath the shelves and stood up on wobbly legs. "Don't know what's so special about this," Kennedy mumbled softly to herself with a curious expression on her face as she picked the small vial up before she heard the sounds of someone coming. With a small squeak of panic she hopped down off of the desk and rushed into the Immortal's closet, burying herself in the back behind all of his coats and hoping that she wouldn't be found.

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"I'm sorry that I couldn't see you any sooner than this but I am a very busy man," The Immortal said with a tone of regret to his voice as he walked into the office and flipped the light on before standing aside and allowing Robin to enter after him.

"I'm sure you are," Robin calmly replied as he stepped into the office and took a look around. The office didn't look like he expected it to. It wasn't overly large or too richly furnished with priceless trinkets from far off shores. It looked entirely like a normal man's office. Though Robin knew that the Immortal was anything but a normal man. Even though he knew not to trust the Immortal he could feel his resolve slowly ebbing away from him. He made a mental note to ask Roger about it when he got back before his thoughts were interrupted.

"Do you want something to drink, I don't really have much but," The Immortal asked with a soft and genuinely helped tone to his voice as he walked over to his small wet bar and picked up a glass.

"No thank you, I won't be staying long and I have a lot of work to do tonight, it'd be best if I were to avoid alcohol for the evening," Robin replied with a humble smile on his face as he slowly sat down and shook his head, trying his very best to play the perfect guest. From her spot inside the closet Kennedy did her best to keep from making a noise and giving away her position. By the time that Robin was done visiting with the Immortal in his office both of Kennedy's knees had begun to ache. She grinned darkly as she came out of the closet, thankful that the two had left minutes ago, before she stealthily made her way out of the Immortal's business. She had heard the entire conversation and more than once had to bite her lip to keep herself from attacking one of them. Her only thought was to find Mercedes as she raced off into the night, holding the soul nice and warmly in her inner coat pocket.

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"So then you were bitten by a werewolf," Audrey asked with a curious pout of hesitation on her face as she raised the lip of her mug up towards her mouth slowly. After Kate had tried to explain a few things Audrey had slowly begun to relax and not feel threatened. By the stroke of midnight she was situated in between Nina and Faith, with the former trying to get Angel's attention, and the latter going over some symbol scrawled out onto a napkin with Wesley.

"Yep, and ever since then I'm lucky enough to get two monthly visitors," Nina started to say back with a sad shaking of her head before she couldn't help but grin a bit at the end. A couple of subdued chuckles were heard from around the bar but no one openly laughed out loud at her joke.

"So then what's your story," Audrey softly asked Dawn with a slightly hesitant look on her face before she took a drink and swallowed.

"Oh you know…formerly a big ball of energy that armies have fought and died for…nothing much," Dawn mumbled back with an awkward frown on her face before she grew nervous and reached for Spike's mug of ale on the table in front of them.

"It's a long story, long story short…we're here to save the bloody world," Spike interjected with an apprehensive frown on his face as he deftly snatched his mug away from Dawn before Willow spoke.

"I'm sorry about how the old council treated you Audrey, but you must understand, the old council was made up of men and women who often looked out for themselves first, the end always justified the means with them," Willow stated with a nervous but sincere tone to her voice and look on her face as she looked straight across the large table at Audrey.

"From where I'm sitting Willow, it doesn't look like to much has changed, Giles is still playing by the old council's rules, no matter how much he wants to deny it, he's no better than they are, in fact he might be worse," Angel said softly with a very serious, but not angry, tone to his voice as he finally looked over at Nina, saw the sadness in her eyes and reached over and laid a hand on her knee.

"They're repeating the same old mistakes," Gwen replied with a sizeable hint of sarcasm to her voice as she shook her head and tried not to get to negative.

"And making all new ones," Connor chimed in with a grimly amused smirk on his face as he checked his watch and tried not to stare at Audrey.

"Wait a minute, what do you know about the old council," Willow demanded with an impatient and confused frown on her face as she turned to Gwen.

"How do you think I found out about this little miracle," Gwen replied calmly with a satisfied grin on her face as she produced the chip that held her electrical charge in check out of one of her pockets and held it up.

"I thought your contacts with Wolfram and Hart helped you find it," Kate wondered aloud with a confused frown on her face as she sat up straight and leaned forward onto the table.

"They did, I used both the old council and my contacts at Wolfram and Hart to find it, of course I never let on with the council why I wanted it, I never met with the council in person, I always used a go between, someone that they would willingly do business with," Gwen replied with a calm expression on her face as she slid the chip back into her pocket and brushed some lint off of her sleeve.

"Who's Wolfram and Hart," Audrey asked softly with a curious look on her face after she swallowed a drink and set her mug back down onto the table in front of her.

"In a word…evil," Wesley said with a very serious sigh as he took a deep breath and let it out, thankful that the medicine that Faith had mixed in with his drink had begun to work.

"On the surface it's a law firm, with offices all over the world, they claim to be on the up and up, but behind the façade they're really an inter-dimensional juggernaut that is twisting everything around so that in the end evil wins the last apocalypse," Faith added with a slightly guilty frown on her face before she slid her feet off of Wesley's lap and got up to go and get them some more drinks.

"Someone's been studying, hauling out the big words," Spike quipped softly under his breath, as he leaned a bit closer to Dawn, before she did her best to stifle a laugh.

"You guys seem to know them pretty well," Audrey said with an odd look on her face as she handed her mug to Faith, who reluctantly kept her cool and went back to the bar to refill it after she placed hers and Wesley's mugs on the table near their chairs.

"I used to run the Los Angeles branch…it's a long story, but why all of the questions, there's a branch here in Rome, surely you've dealt with them in the past," Angel answered softly with a very calm and serious tone to his voice as he gently gave Nina's knee a squeeze as he turned his head to the side to look at Audrey.

"Not really, I don't really get out much…after the accident I've stayed pretty close to home, our family lawyer helped me through all of the legal stuff after my parents died, and after that…well protecting my neighbors keeps me pretty busy," Audrey slowly replied with an embarrassed look on her face as she lied just a little bit. She had heard the name Wolfram and Hart before, but hadn't heard much about who they were or what they did. So she played dumb to get some information.

"Trust me, you're better off not having anything to do with Wolfram and Hart, nothing ever ends well when they're involved," Spike said softly with a very serious look on his face as he swished a bit of gin around in his glass before he gulped it all down.

"I'll try to remember that," Audrey said back softly as she couldn't help but shudder from the serious look on his face.

"See that you," Angel started to say with an anxious frown on his face before an odd odor came to his attention.

"What…what is it," Nina asked softly with a suddenly very concerned tone to her voice as she glanced over and noticed the look on Angel's face.

"It can't be," Spike stuttered out with an eerie look of total disbelief on his face as he slowly got up from his seat and walked over to the window that lead out onto the street.

"Why do I not like the sound of that," Dawn asked softly with a scared pout on her face as she set her cup down and turned to Willow.

"I sense a great darkness," Willow replied with a very nervous and serious expression on her face before Angel cut in.

"Quick, cut the lights…all of them, everyone down now," Angel exclaimed in earnest, with an almost scared silly look on his face, as he leapt up out of his chair and began to hurriedly turn off every light in the pub.

"What's wrong…Angel, tell me," Faith demanded with an annoyed and tense look on her face as she leapt up to her feet while Mercedes went to join Spike at the window.

"It's them," Spike stated with a look of awed fear on his face as he turned back from the window after shutting off any lights near him.

"Who," Mercedes asked with a confused look on her face as she grabbed Spike's arm and kept him from shutting off one light, not liking the look on his face when he turned back to her.

"The scourge," Angel answered softly with a very serious and overwhelmed look in his eyes before he shut off the last light.

"Bloody hell," Wesley mumbled out softly under his breath with a very startled and surprised tone to his voice before Angel grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down beneath one of the larger tables, giving them both adequate cover. Nina, though she didn't know what was going on, joined Angel and Wesley with a panicked look of fear on her face.

"That bad huh Wes," Faith asked softly with a look of confidence on her face though her tone betrayed the nervousness that she had at the unexpected.

"They're the S.S. of the demon world," Wesley replied with a very grim and concerned look on his face as Faith slid in underneath the table next to him, glaring at Angel but keeping one eye on the pub's front door and the other on Wesley.

"The who," Dawn hissed softly with a confused look on her face as Willow made sure that she stayed out of sight.

"Hitler's secret police, they're infamous," Willow replied with a very nervous look on her face as she kept Dawn behind her and out of any line of fire.

"And bloody terrible card players, did I ever tell you the story," Spike spat out with a look of mockery on his face before Angel interrupted.

"Shut up Spike," Angel hissed with a fair amount of venom in his tone as he kept Nina behind him so that they'd have to go through him to get to her.

"We should fight," Connor announced with a confidant and combative tone to his voice and look on his face as he started to get up from behind his table.

"They may outnumber us," Groo added with a serious look on his face as he turned from looking at Connor to look over at Angel.

"Of course they outnumber us, they never travel alone, always in large groups, makes them more lethal, Connor get down, we are not fighting them," Angel replied with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he looked around the bar and tried to get a lay of the land in case they needed to make a stand there.

"Are they really that bad," Audrey wondered aloud with a confused look on her face as she hesitantly peeked her head up over the rim of her table before quickly ducking back down out of sight as a ray of light from most likely a flashlight whipped by the window.

"They don't play around, the last time I fought these guys I lost one of my best friends, I don't want to take that chance again…not if I don't have to," Angel shot back with a very serious look on his face before he crawled out from underneath his table, against Nina's silent pleadings, and carefully made his way over to the window. Everyone waited in nervous silence as Angel cautiously pulled back the curtains just enough to look outside. Seconds later he jerked his hand away and ducked down further as the sound of booted heels passing back rose up out on the street. No one moved or even dared to do more than breathe more than what was absolutely necessary to live until the sounds died away.

"Well that was a barrel of monkeys," Spike grumbled with an impatient scowl on his face before he turned back and laid a hand on Dawn's shoulder, his countenance softening slightly in relief when she picked her head up and smiled at him.

"We need to go…now, they might come back," Angel announced with a deadly serious and impatient frown on his face before Mercedes interrupted.

"Running won't save us," Mercedes interjected with a suddenly very worried and scared look on her face as she shakily stood up and turned towards Angel.

"Why am I getting a bad feeling about this," Kate grumbled with an impatient pout on her face as Groo helped her back up to her feet.

"I didn't think that he'd actually do it…The Immortal, every so often he'd joke about bringing the Scourge in to…thin the herd a bit, I never thought that he was serious," Mercedes answered softly with a guilty look of fear on her face, as if she felt that she could have prevented it from happening somehow, before she swallowed hard and if possible got even paler.

"How can you be sure that he's the one that brought them here," Willow asked with a pointed expression on her face as she and Dawn got back to their feet.

"Yeah, the guy doesn't exactly look like a demon," Faith pointed out with a curious look on her face before she noticed Wesley having some pains in getting back up to his feet and she turned back to help him up.

"The Scourge would never work for someone that wasn't a full demon," Angel added with a very dark look on his face as he slowly walked away from the window straight towards Mercedes.

"He'd never contact them directly, it'd be much to dangerous, he'd send one of his demon flunkies, it's how he deals with all of the demons, the Immortal doesn't like to get his hands dirty unless he thinks that he's going to win, besides if something went wrong," Mercedes said back with a kind of soft mocking chuckle and smirk as she sidestepped a table and shortened the distance between herself and Angel.

"He'd be able to wash his hands of the entire thing, letting his underling take all of the heat while he gets away free as a bird, smart plan," Gwen said softly with an almost impressed look on her face as she slid a hand into her pocket, making sure that the chip was still there, just in case.

"We'll worry about that later, we need to get back before they come back, and you're going to have to call Giles, don't tell him where you are, but you have to warn him about the Scourge, make him understand how dangerous they are and that they shouldn't be taken lightly, I don't want any more deaths on my conscience, I have more than enough already," Angel declared with a very decisive and commanding tone to his words and look on his face as Gwen pulled her cell phone out and ordered the cars to be brought around while Willow slowly nodded her head and started to think about what to say to Giles.

END OF CHAPTER 30

Author's Note: Thanks to all for reading. This chapter starts out in a bar that Gwen called ahead first to and basically bought for the night so that Angel and the others could try to relax without having to deal with a lot of the bar's regulars. Audrey was there as it was her part time job. During the night Dawn kept trying to sneak a sip of Spike's beer but he made sure to stop her every time. Audrey and Nina struck up a conversation, as someone would probably ask Audrey about why she has pink hair. Nina's reservations about Angel not liking her as much as a brunette is more about how once a fight gets going Angel tends to pull away from those that he cares most about and focuses to much on the fight, which in and of itself isn't entirely bad, but Angel tends to do it to the extreme and those closest to him suffer. Audrey has a pretty good idea that Wolfram and Hart aren't good guys but she doesn't know much else, so she plays dumb to try to learn more. Angel and the others don't outright accept her it's just that since she's a slayer she's already in the world of demons and the like and therefore doesn't have to have everything explained to her from the beginning.

Kennedy went to the Immortal's office and headquarters to see if she could find Mercedes, or something to help her situation. She got to the Immortal's office and found Mercedes' soul, but got interrupted when the Immortal and Robin Wood came in to talk. So she hid in the closet, listened to their conversation, and then came out and ran off into the night, taking with her Mercedes' soul. The rest of the chapter is more of the talking between Audrey and Angel's group as they get t know each other a bit better. The appearance of the Scourge just kind of came to me out of the blue, as they would be a way for the Immortal to cause a lot of havoc and if he wanted to and come out looking like a saint, as he'd just blame their appearance on a patsy and move on. Why he brought them to Rome is a source of debate, guess you'll all have to read on to find out why.

In closing thanks to all for reading and remember reviews are appreciated.


	31. I Hate Those Guys

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 31-I HATE THOSE GUYS**

No one spoke on the ride back to their makeshift home. Audrey had been dropped off halfway back, saying that she could get home by herself. The moment that they walked out of the elevator Wesley grimaced in pain and Faith lead him back to their room, the door shutting behind them. Willow started to pull Spike and Dawn into their room before Angel stopped her, saying that he needed to talk to Spike about something important.

"Let me guess, you want to know how I know about the Scourge," Spike said softly with a hint of amusement in his voice as he and Angel stepped into the kitchen.

"For starters," Angel replied with a cold look of seriousness on his face as he shut the door behind them and turned back to Spike.

"Dru and I came across a few of their scouts back in the fifties, they were making their war throughout southern France, we stayed far enough away so that they wouldn't know we were there, but close enough to see the threat that they could pose," Spike replied with a bored shrug of his shoulders as he slowly walked to the refrigerator, opened the door, and pulled out a vial of blood.

"This is all going horribly wrong, what is he thinking, no one can control the scourge," Angel growled back sharply, more angry at the situation that at Spike, as he slammed his fist down onto the counter top.

"Who says that he wants to," Spike questioned back with a grim smirk on his face as he opened a cupboard and began to look for a mug.

"He wouldn't be that stupid," Angel shot back with a look of hopeful disbelief on his face as he straightened up, crossed his arms in front of his chest and then leaned back against the counter top.

"Perhaps, but can we afford to take that chance," Spike sagely said with a serious look on his face as he found a mug and then filled it up with the blood.

"We may have to, I got in touch with Giles and I was barely able to get a word in edgewise because Buffy and Xander were there and they wouldn't listen to anything that I had to say until I told them what was going on," Willow replied with an eerily calm tone to her voice as she pushed open the door and stepped into the kitchen

"You didn't did you," Angel demanded with an almost breathless look of concern on his face as in his minds eye he could see everything that he had set up come crashing down.

"Of course not, I'm not going to betray my friends…again," Willow started to confidently explain as she slowly approached Angel before a half glare from Spike made her amend her statement.

"What did you tell them then," Spike wondered aloud with a curious look on his face as he put the mug of blood into the microwave and then shut the door.

"As much of the truth that I could say, that there was a very dangerous army of demons that just arrived in Rome, I named them several times and told Giles to write it down, it shouldn't take him to long to find them in one of his old books," Willow replied with a nervous look on her face as internally she was desperate for Spike and Angel to believe her.

"If they're even in any of his dusty old books," Spike pouted quickly with a look of grave concern on his face as he watched the mug spin around and around, wondering to himself if he should have covered it.

"The Scourge don't exactly like a lot of press, they're even more secretive than the Initiative," Angel added with a very sour and concerned frown on his face as he shook his head and then sat down at the small table.

"You sound like you know a lot about the Initiative, but they didn't come to Sunnydale until after you left for L.A.," Willow pointed out with a slightly confused look on her face as she sat down at the table in a chair opposite to Angel's.

"Well…let's just say that the Initiative has been around for longer than you might think," Angel grumbled back with an annoyed frown on his face as he remembered the mission that he had been forced to undertake decades before.

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"What'd Gwen give you," Faith asked softly with a concerned look on her face as she came out of the bathroom, toothbrush firmly in hand. While she was in the bathroom Faith had heard the door open and words being exchanged between Wesley and Gwen, but the radio had been loud enough that she hadn't been able to full make them out. But she had caught a quick glimpse of Gwen handing something that looked like a file to Wesley.

"A problem, a problem that needs to be solved before we get the other book that'll allow me to decipher the first one that we stole," Wesley replied with a very serious look on his face as Faith crawled up onto the bed and laid down on her back with her head close to the foot of the bed and her feet ending up near Wesley as he had taken all of the pillows and used them to prop himself up.

"So what's the damage," Faith groaned back with a sarcastic frown on her face as she stared up at the ceiling fan above the bed while she unbuckled her jeans and proceeded to carefully kick them off and let them slide off the edge of the bed.

"Several months ago Gwen was hired to steal a very rare emerald that is over four centuries old, it's said to possess special transmutation capabilities," Wesley started to answer with a tired yawn as he was forced to stop reading through the file and rub his eyes before Faith jumped in.

"It does what again," Faith asked with a confused frown on her face as she lifted only her head up off of the sheets and looked straight at Wesley.

"It changes one thing into another, with the medical background of the person that hired Gwen for the job I can only imagine that he plans to use the stone to try and cure his terminal cancer, changing his cancerous cells back into normal ones, a nice idea," Wesley said back with a serious frown on his face as he found his place on the page again.

"I'm guessing that you think that this idea falls into the to good to be true category," Faith joked with an amused smirk on her face as she bent her left leg over top of her right and gently ran her toes down the side of Wesley's bare right arm.

"Don't you, the last time that she asked us for our help ended up almost getting us all killed," Wesley remarked back with a serious and rather glum frown on his face as he shook his head in dismay.

"Maybe, but one good thing did come out of it," Faith quipped back with an amused and tired expression on her face as she propped herself up on her forearms, allowing a few strands of hair to fall down in front of her face, making it hard for Wesley to concentrate on keeping his eyes on the file in front of him.

"Really, and what was that," Wesley shot back with a tired sigh as he let out the breath that he had been holding in ever since laid down beside him.

"You getting me out of that urine soaked hell hole that I was in," Faith snapped back softly with a fair amount of venom in her voice though the look in her eyes told a completely different story.

"Really, the prison looked clean enough to me," Wesley stated with a surprised half frown on his face as he closed the file and let his glasses slide down to the tip of his nose.

"It was a joke Wes…God," Faith grumbled back with a slightly flabbergasted expression on her face as she flopped back down onto the bed and covered her face with her hands as she let out a sigh.

"Ah yes…a joke, I seem to remember them, I remember that I was quite good at them," Wesley softly replied with a completely honest look on his face though the edges of his mouth were beginning to curl up into the start of a smile as he spoke.

"The Immortal's demon thugs must have hit you harder than I thought if you actually believe that," Faith started to grumble back with a slightly annoyed scowl on her face as she picked her head up off of the bed before Wesley reached over with his right hand and grabbed the inner side of her right leg, just on the underside of her knee. Her breath caught in short gasps as he began to slowly caress the underside of her hip, his hand almost grazing the edge of her panties, before she set her jaw and sat up. "Jerk," Faith growled softly under her breath with a daring fire in her eyes as she stopped Wesley's hand from moving up and down the underside of her thigh with one hand while pulling Wesley close with the other.

"Bitch," Wesley breathed out back with a randy grin on his face before just as their lips met there was a knock at the door.

"Shit," Faith grumbled softly with a disappointed sigh as she dropped her head down to Wesley chest as he picked his head up.

"Who's there," Wesley asked with an anxious and slightly disappointed frown on his face before there was an answer.

"It's me, we need to talk," Angel replied with a hesitant tone to his voice as he anxiously stood outside the door, trying hard to keep his nerves under control.

"Okay, just give us a minute," Faith called out with a frustrated frown on her face as she flopped back down onto the bed and then scowled as Wesley pushed his glasses back up to a proper position on his nose.

"You guys okay," Angel asked softly with a somewhat concerned look on his face as he leaned in closer to the door, hoping to figure out what was the holdup, even though it was unnecessary given his vampiric hearing.

"Five by five," Faith shot back through the doorway as she hurriedly slid off of the bed, picked up her jeans, and wriggled back into them, zipping up her zipper only a couple of seconds before she turned the doorknob and opened the door.

"Gwen said that she had a job for us," Angel said with a serious and curious expression on his face as he slowly walked into the room and then shut the door behind him.

"That and then some," Wesley replied with a tense frown on his face before he handed Angel the file and began to explain.

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"The scourge, never heard of em," Xander shrugged out softly with a tired yawn as he sat back in his chair and watched Vi and Andrew playing a game of tic-tac-toe.

"Why does that not surprise me," A subdued Kennedy grumbled from the corner as she tried to hold back a yawn. After fleeing the Immortal's office with the soul she had searched a few more places before stumbling back to her and Willow's room. She tried to call Willow a couple of times but by the second time she was so sleepy that she ended up dialing a very wrong number. She was barely able to hang the phone up before sleep had overtaken her.

"No one's talking to you," Xander shot back with a clearly sarcastic and combative tone to his voice as he snapped his head around and glared straight at Kennedy, who still hadn't changed out of her bathrobe even though it was now almost noon.

"Now don't start this again," Giles grumbled out softly under his breath through a sigh as he began to slowly scan the different books that he had laid out in front of them on the large meeting room table.

"Start what Giles, I'm just pointing out the fact that," Xander started to continue on with an accusatory tone to his voice before Buffy stopped him.

"That's enough, if these scourge are as bad as Willow said that they were then the last thing that we need is for the two of you to be going at each other like cats and dogs at every turn," Buffy exclaimed with a very anxious frown on her face as even though she hadn't actually taken the call her slayer senses were going haywire, telling her that trouble was coming.

"Oh I'm afraid that they're worse than Miss Rosenberg told you, far worse," Roger stated softly with a grave frown on his face as he shook his head while standing in the doorway of the meeting room, his hand on the doorknob.

"You know of them," Giles asked with a somewhat surprised look on his face as he looked up from the files momentarily.

"Unfortunately yes, not by personal experience of course, but an old colleague of mine was present at an autopsy of one of their members, my friend said that he saw these…things in action later on, he said that they were terrifying…absolutely terrifying," Roger replied with a somber look on his face as he took his hand off of the doorknob and entered the room, without shutting the door behind him.

"How…terrifying," A visibly nervous Vi asked with a panicked look on her face as she stopped in the middle of winning a game to swallow hard and look down the table.

"I believe that you could best compare them to Adolf Hitler's secret police, the S.S.," Roger answered with a frustrated look on his face as he sat down beside Xander and let out a sigh.

"Are you okay sir," Andrew asked with a worried look on his face as he stood up and took a step towards Roger.

"Quite alright, I think that I'm catching a rather nasty cold, it's left me a bit drained, I'll be fine…now, we should put all of the slayers in the city on full alert, if they catch even a glimpse of these creatures they are to radio in and wait for reinforcements, it would be absolute suicide for any slayer…no matter how powerful she might believe herself to be…to take the Scourge on alone, even with several slayers they still might prove to much," Roger grumbled back with at first an impatient frown on his face before he turned away from Andrew and looked straight to Giles, avoiding having to look at Buffy as he spoke the last few portions of his answer.

"They're really that bad," A scared Xander asked as he slid his feet off of the chair next to him and sat up straight.

"I'm afraid so Mr. Harris, and true to their nature there are very few if any pictures of them, they're so secretive…though if you know what to look for…and what to listen for," Roger began to say with a very serious look on his face as he began to idly tap his fingers on the table.

"And what's that…exactly," Kennedy wondered aloud, after having stayed silent for the past few moments, as she pushed off of the wall and began to slowly walk towards Buffy.

"The scourge always appear at night, they march in formation…a military formation, they all wear boots that if one listens carefully can be heard knocking against the sidewalks and back alleys before they're actually seen, fear is one of their most lethal weapons," Roger answered back with a firm look on his face of one that didn't doubt the stories about the Scourge and took them very seriously.

"Wish we knew someone that had actually fought these things," Vi mumbled out softly with a scared look on her face as she walked up behind Andrew and leaned up against him, resting her chin on his shoulder, hugging her body close to his. Were Andrew not so wrapped up in the discussion about the scourge and his own fears about them he might have noticed how close Vi now was to him.

"In perhaps the cruelest bit of irony that I've heard of in ages we actually do, though I don't think that he's going to give us any assistance," Roger said back with a dark smirk on his face that soon turned into a devilish grin of sarcasm.

"Why…who is it," Buffy asked softly with a surprised and perplexed look on her face as she couldn't think of anyone that she knew that would have tangled with the scourge and wouldn't help them if at all possible.

"Your friend Angelus…or Angel as he calls himself, several years ago he and his associates were foolish enough to take the Scourge on in an effort to protect a shipment of half demons out of this country, they won…no…they survived the night, except their survival came at a terrible cost, one of his number was lost in the battle, I do not believe that Angel would wish to confront the Scourge again unless he had no other choice," Roger replied softly with a refrained look of somberness on his face as he recalled the knowledge that he had gleaned from a top secret security briefing several years earlier.

"But he did have Willow call us and tell us about the Scourge, surely that has to mean something," Buffy stammered out with a hopeful and almost pleading tone to her voice as she looked first to Roger and then back to Giles.

"I guess it's possible, but highly unlikely, he would be more apt to simply not tell us anything than he would to ever fully explain," Roger said back with a scornful glint in his eyes as he slowly shook his head.

"Wait…doesn't Willow have her pager," Kennedy suddenly announced with an optimistic look on her face as she turned back around to face towards Buffy.

"Yeah…but she's not going to call us back," Xander stated with a confused frown on his face before he ran a hand nervously through his hair.

"She doesn't have to, I could call and leave her a message to meet me somewhere out of the way, someplace quiet, maybe then she might tell us more, or at least we could find out if this is a ruse or not, but right now…to me, my girl's telling the truth," Kennedy shot back with a hopeful smile on her face as she began to slowly shift her weight back and forth from one leg to another before Xander started to speak.

"Don't you dare," Xander started to grumble with an angry scowl on his face before Buffy slouched down in her chair just far enough so that she could slam her heel down on top of his foot, hard enough to get him to shut up but not hard enough to break anything.

"That might work," Giles softly said with a very deep in thought look on his face as he stared straight ahead at the files in front of him before a plan began to form.

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"I knew this was to good to be true, she sets us up here and gives us everything that we need," Angel grumbled out softly with a slightly disappointed frown on his face as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I guess that this is how she wants us to pay her back," Wesley replied with a brief shrug of his shoulders as he took in as deep of a breath as his injured ribs would allow.

"But what's so special about this job," Angel asked with a dreadfully curious tone to his voice as he half turned and looked back over his shoulder at Wesley as Faith walked around to stand at his side.

"I'd say probably the heat sensors, looks like if the temperature rises to high they go off," Faith said back with a calm and serious look on her face as she leaned over next to Wesley and looked closer at the open file that he had propped up against his knees.

"And given that both you and Spike put off far less heat than a normal human being the two of you should be able to slip in without triggering the sensors," Wesley added with a calm but yet serious tone to his voice as he looked down at the file and frowned.

"Both of us," Angel wondered with a surprised and slightly confused look on his face as he stood up and turned back to Wesley and Faith.

"Looks that way I'm afraid, apparently there are other obstacles near those same sensors that do not appear to be what you'd normally expect to find, from what Gwen has here the security system sounds an awful lot like Wolfram and Hart's when you and Cordelia were trying to stop Lindsey," Wesley answered with a rather glum expression on his face as he shook his head and closed the file, handing it up to Faith.

"Just who's security system is it…Wes," Faith asked with an anxious frown on her face as she didn't like the vibe that Wesley was putting off.

"Wesley," Angel asked, a bit more pointedly than Faith, as he knew that whenever Wesley went silent it never meant anything good.

"Here…sorry Angel, I know how much you hate," Wesley softly replied with an almost guilty expression on his face as he took the file back from Faith and did his best to toss it to Angel with it landing on the other side of the bed.

"Wes," Faith whispered softly with a confused look on her face as she gently laid a hand on his shoulder and tried to get him to look at her.

"Ah crap…he's a necromancer," Angel grumbled out with almost a schoolboy pout tone of voice and look on his face as he rolled his eyes and his shoulders sagged.

END OF CHAPTER 31

Author's Note: To me the talk at the beginning between Angel and Spike was mostly about Angel finding out how Spike knew of the Scourge. Basically Spike and Dru had come across a few of them years earlier and learned all that they needed to in a very short time. Like he wanted her to Willow called Giles and told him about the Scourge but refused to tell them where she and Dawn were. The crack about the Initiative stems from the episode where the precursor of the Initiative forced Angel to do a job for them in World War 2. The stone that Gwen wants them to steal basically changes one thing into another, like lead into gold, or at least it can do that. Gwen's reason for wanting it is so that she hopes to be able to change her own cells so that she's rid of the electricity forever, without having to resort to the chip all of the time. The urine soaked hell hole part stems for an old episode of The Simpsons where Sideshow Bob is at his parole hearing and he calls the prison that and the pardon board wants him to change it to pee-pee soaked heck hole. Wesley and Faith come close to having sex but then Angel interrupts them. The part with Buffy and the others has Xander and Kennedy still at odds over the affair. Giles and Buffy are trying to learn about the Scourge; Roger helps them out with some knowledge that he's gleaned over the years from reports and the like. Vi and Andrew seem to be getting a bit closer and spending more time together. Roger's a bit under the weather at the moment, which could become worse. The last section has Wesley and Faith talking with Angel about the job that Gwen wants them to do as payment for her setting them up in her apartments. Angel doesn't like necromancers as shown in a very early episode of season five. The sensors wouldn't pick up Spike and Angel, as their body temperatures are much lower than normal peoples. So in closing thanks to everyone for reading and as always reviews are appreciated. Let's see how high we can go…


	32. New Gift

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 32-NEW GIFT**

The special meeting had been convened in the largest room of Gwen's apartments. Unlike what would usually be the norm not everyone attended. Willow and Dawn were kept out as Angel felt that it was best if they were kept out of any plan involving a theft of something from someone that had no connection to the Immortal. Kate and Groo were told enough so that they were comfortable being left out and left behind. Connor had argued long and hard to be included in the mission but in the end had begrudgingly agreed to stay behind. Though when he was around everyone Angel told Nina that he couldn't tell her what the mission was about once it was only the two of them he reluctantly told her everything.

"This won't end well," Spike grumbled out softly with an impatient frown on his face as he shook his head and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"We don't know that for sure Spike," Wesley replied with a slightly hesitant look of apprehension on his face before Faith leaned in close and whispered to him.

"But you're guessing that he's not to far off though right," Faith pointed out in a hushed whisper with a look of dread on her face as she had a feeling that was similar to Spike's about the mission. Wesley sighed before nodding his head ever so slightly.

"Hey now guys, come on, he won't even be home, you guys aren't turning chicken on me, not after," Gwen started to say with a look of angry disbelief on her face before Angel turned and silenced her with a look.

"Of course not…we've just had some bad experiences with necromancer's in the past," Angel stated with a very firm and clear tone to his voice as he angrily shook his head and glared lightly at Gwen.

"However in that case Angel you and Spike did have direct contact with," Wesley started to argue with a somewhat hesitant look on his face as he started to elaborate on one or their old cases before Spike interrupted.

"That wasn't the experience that Peaches was talking about there Wesley, we managed to happen across a few during our travels," Spike interjected with a grim look of proud nostalgia on his face as he allowed himself a half smirk.

"You mean that swath of destruction that the four of you carved through Europe," Kate shot back with an accusing scowl on her face as she pushed off of the wall and glared lightly across the room at both Spike and Angel.

"Lady sure knows her stuff…wonder how that happened," Spike joked with a grimly sarcastic smirk on his face as he lightly glared over at Angel, who paid him no mind.

"I read up on you guys back in LA, quite the glory hounds," Kate replied with a grim smirk of sarcasm on her face as she leaned back up against the wall.

"Glory is good for a hero," Groo started to say with a proud and slightly excited smile on his face before Faith leaned back in her seat and looked at him over her shoulder, a fair amount of hair falling in front of her face as she did so.

"They weren't hero's back then bub, just soulless vampires getting their kicks by killing," Faith casually replied with an impish smirk on her face before it turned into a full smile at the glare that Angel sent her way.

"Can we get back to business here people, this has to be done tomorrow night at the latest because after that the stone will be moved out of the country, and if that happens you guys can start looking for another place to stay," Gwen remarked with a very serious and firm tone to her voice as she let out an upset sigh and turned sharply to face Angel.

"So what's the rush, got a hot date or something," Faith joked with an amused smirk on her face as she turned back around just as Wesley leaned forward a bit with a slightly pained scowl on his face, an act that immediately consumed Faith's world.

"Why should I tell you, you shouldn't even be here, I only need Angel and Spike, the rest of you," Gwen started to snap back with a tense frown on her face before Angel spoke up and interrupted her.

"They're here to be our eyes and ears while we're inside, there's no one I trust more than them," Angel interjected with a very serious and impatient frown on his face as he walked over at sat down next to Spike.

"Besides, Faith will make one hell of a diversion if need be," Spike added with an impish grin on his face as he seemed to almost relish the idea.

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"You don't think that…she knows not to trust him," Buffy stammered out with a nervous look on her face as she sat across Giles' desk in his office.

"Of course Buffy, Dawn's a smart girl, it'd take something pretty special for her to stay with Angel after what he's done," Giles replied with a hopefully reassuring tone of voice as he looked up briefly from the file about the Scourge that he was putting together.

"That's just it though, if he's not lying to her then…what, what would make her stay," Buffy wondered aloud with a worried look on her face as she absentmindedly flipped through a few pages of the file spread out across her lap.

"Perhaps he's told her that he has proof that we are all in some sort of danger and she is simply waiting to see if he's telling her the truth or not," Giles said back with a nervous shrug of his shoulders before Vi stepped timidly into the room, holding a rather large file in her hands.

"Or maybe he's telling the truth and we're the ones that have it wrong…oops, sorry, forget I said anything…here," Vi stated at first with a very calm and relaxed tone of voice before her nerves returned and got the better of her. Nearly blushing half to death Vi set the large file down on the edge of Giles' desk and then hurriedly turned to leave.

"Uh Vi," Buffy suddenly exclaimed with a confused look on her face as she lifted her head up so that she could see Vi's reaction to her question.

"Y…yes," Vi replied back quickly with a scared look on her face as her hands nervously went to a lock of braided hair before she began to wind it around her left index finger.

"What did you mean, that maybe we're the ones that have it wrong," Giles asked with a curious look on his face as even though he knew that Vi wasn't the brightest slayer in the world he knew that she also wasn't a slouch in the academic department and her statement gave him pause.

"Huh…oh nothing, just me rambling on about things that I don't know anything about, just forget that I said anything," Vi quickly said back with a now scared look on her face as she took a cautious step backwards away from Giles' desk and her gaze shot over to the door.

"It's okay Vi, we're not going to yell at you, we're just curious," Buffy said softly with a calm smile on her face as she set the files that she had been scanning down onto the small coffee table in front of her chair and stood up.

"Well I've been reading up on the history of the old council and seen enough late night movies to know," Vi began to say with a subtly calmer look on her face as on shaky legs she walked back over at sat down in the open chair.

"Late night movies," Giles pondered aloud with a confused frown on his face as he laid his pen down and cocked his head just a bit to the side.

"One of the benefits of not having a life…heh," Vi replied with an embarrassed giggle before she hunched her shoulders up and let her head droop down a bit.

"What do old movies have to do with," Buffy started to ask with now an even more confused look on her face before Andrew entered the room, doing his best to look as professional as possible. Though his act was broken quite severely when he bumped his cast on the corner of one of the bookcases and nearly shed tears in pain.

"I think she means that… appearances can be deceiving, Angel's never been the most forthright vampire, and I don't think that he's been corrupted, it's more like he feels that we abandoned him…or at least that's what I got from Nina," Andrew stated with a calm look on his face and tone to his words though his eyes shown of fear before Giles stopped him by half raising his hand.

"Nina…she would be," Giles asked with a deep in thought expression on his face as he remembered back to the night of the party and tried to remember the young brunette woman that had accompanied Angel and Wesley.

"Angel's girlfriend, the werewolf…she's actually pretty nice," Andrew quickly answered with a happy grin on his face as he remembered that for a brief moment he had enjoyed talking to Nina at the bar, all of course before Illyria had stormed in and broken his hand.

"He's dating a werewolf," Buffy stammered out with a stunned and surprised look on her face as she sat back down in her chair.

"She was there the night of the party, after Angel interrupted it, she didn't look like she liked it very much," Giles added with a very concerned look on his face as he leaned back in his chair and picked his pen back up, seconds before he told Andrew to tell him everything that he knew about Nina, Illyria, and Gwen and the others.

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"So then you're going to stay here and be our eyes and ears," Faith asked with an outwardly confidant and sarcastic smirk on her face, as she pulled a tight black shirt on over her head and then pulled her hair all out, while inwardly she was very nervous.

"That's the plan, but I think that Gwen might have other ideas," Wesley unhappily replied as he stared sadly out of one of the windows in their room as the sun began to set off in the distance.

"She's not dragging you into this any more, I can handle this fine…you can barely walk a few feet without doubling over and nearly coughing up blood," Faith said back with at first a defiant look of certainty on her face before she scowled heavily as she began to tuck her shirt in.

"Easy Faith, I don't think that she has any designs on my joining the team that retrieves the stone, it's more likely that she's going to have one of those horribly stereotypical spy vans that she'll have parked a few blocks away," Wesley said softly with a calming look on his face as he turned away from the window and towards Faith as she glanced back at him.

"You mean like in the movie that Dawn watched last night, the one with Ahnold in it," Faith questioned back with a slightly impish smirk on her face as she finished tucking her shirt in.

"I believe it was called True Lies," Wesley started to say with a tired yawn as he started to make his way across the room back towards the bed.

"Good movie, the actress that played his daughter wasn't to bad either," Faith joked with a darkly sarcastic grin on his face before Wesley stopped walking and closed his eyes, taking in as deep of a breath as he dared.

"Getting back to the task at hand though…don't take any unnecessary risks, Angel and Spike will take enough of them for all of us," Wesley replied back with a hesitant look of sarcasm on his face before he made up the distance to the bed and sat down.

"Why is that, if they were still alive you could probably call it a death wish, but they've both been dead for so long that," Faith started to wonder back with a bored look on her face before Wesley reached across the bed for her shoes, stretching a bit to far, and couldn't help but hiss in pain. Faith stopped speaking the instant that she heard him, her eyes full of concern.

"I'm fine…just a little stiff, don't say it Faith," Wesley started to reply with an angry at himself tone to his voice before it became more commanding as he glanced up at Faith, as the edges of her mouth were beginning to curl up just a shadow of a bit.

"Say what," Faith shot back with the most innocent look that Wesley had ever seen on her face as she shrugged her shoulders.

"You know what I mean, I could hear the gears inside your head spinning, coming up with some randy comeback," Wesley grumbled back with a none to pleased scowl on his face as he put a hand to his ribs and leaned back up against the stack of pillows on his side of the bed.

"Touché…actually what I was going to say is that before I get knee deep in zombies," Faith said back with a bemused smirk on her face as she walked back towards the bed, pulling her socks out of the pockets of her jeans.

"Zombies," Wesley asked softly with a perplexed expression on his face as Faith sat down on the bed on the opposite side and took the shoes from him.

"He's a necromancer Wes, doesn't it stand to reason that if he has guards they'd be zombies," Faith lazily answered with a bored frown on her face as she began to pull her socks on.

"So you're thinking that he doesn't have guards," Wesley questioned with an inquisitive expression on his face as he reached down and grabbed one of Faith's socks just as she was finishing up putting the other one on.

"He probably does, but maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have a swelled head and think that no one would dare try to steal from him so he wouldn't need guards," Faith sharply replied with a surprised look on her face as she lightly glared up at Wesley before she snatched her sock back.

"That's a bit to lucky for us luv," Wesley tiredly replied as he stiffly leaned back up against the pile of pillows and closed his eyes, letting out an anxious sigh at the end.

"Yeah…you're probably right, we'll probably run into a whole army of guards," Faith sadly replied with an apprehensive look on her face as she put on her other sock and finished tying her shoes.

"Then we'd better get ready," Wesley grumbled out with a tired and slightly pained sigh as he forced his eyes back open and then used the headboard to pull himself up to his feet, with Faith watching his every move closely.

"I'll go tell Gwen that we're ready, don't die on me before I get back okay," said softly with a serious look on her face as she silently slid off of the bed and started to head towards the door.

"I'll try not to disappoint," Wesley answered back softly with a weary half smirk on his face before Faith left the room, to soon to see Wesley drop quickly back down onto the bed and try to catch his breath.

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Mercedes watched Illyria silently. She knew what she was but for some reason Mercedes still found it odd. After having been left out of the planning meeting for the big mission Illyria had begun to wander the halls of the hotel, staring oddly at everyone that left there rooms. To avoid too much unwanted attention she had shifted back from the fierce blue-eyed goddess and to the mousy girl from Texas. Mercedes wasn't sure which incarnation she liked better, after being cooped up in the few rooms of Gwen's lofts she had begun to go stir crazy. The bars and clubs of the city had been her playground, now she was forced to keep an eye on a half insane ex goddess for God knew how long.

"Can this get any lamer," Mercedes grumbled to herself with a bored and disappointed scowl on her face as she flopped back into one of the chairs in the lobby, careful to choose one that was clearly out of the last few rays of sunlight for the day. Illyria had taken a sudden interest in watching the bank of televisions in the hotel bar. The only thing that Mercedes wanted to do in the bar was drink, but as much as she hated it she had been given a job and she was going to do it.

"Who knows…define lame," Kennedy joked with a slight shrug of her shoulders as she walked up behind Mercedes and was clearly hiding something underneath her jacket.

"Kennedy, what are you doing here, how did you," Mercedes excitedly blurted out with a pleasantly surprised look on her face as she jumped up out of the chair and went to hug Kennedy, but the latter backed up a bit. "What's wrong, you usually love my hugs," Mercedes added with a curious pout on her face before she raised an eyebrow and winked at Kennedy.

"I have a surprise for you," Kennedy nervously replied with a quick glance around to make sure that both no one had followed her and that no one was watching her.

"You're not wearing any underwear," Mercedes offered up with a hopeful smirk on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and let thoughts of watching Illyria slip from her mind.

"Close," Kennedy replied with a slightly embarrassed smirk on her face before she edged a bit closer to Mercedes and unzipped her jacket about halfway, showing Mercedes the vase like object that she had taken from the Immortal's office. Mercedes gasped in shock at the sight of it.

"Wait a bloody minute…that's…that's," Mercedes stammered out with a totally surprised and astonished look on her face as she laid a hand on Kennedy's shoulder and pulled her close, enough so that no one who walked by would see what the slayer had hidden underneath her coat.

"You think it's your soul," Kennedy pointed out with a curious look on her face as she unintentionally leaned into Mercedes a little bit. She had heard Mercedes talk about the Immortal having her soul but she had never actually seen it.

"Do I think…I don't have to, it is my soul, but how did you," Mercedes blurted out with a relieved, excited, and scared tone to her voice as she tried to clear out the jumble of thoughts in her head.

"So this is something good," Kennedy added to her question with a hopeful look on her face as she let out a small breath that she had been holding in.

"Forget good, it's great," Mercedes exclaimed with a victorious grin on her face before she pulled Kennedy into such a powerful kiss that the she almost dropped the soul.

"Whoa," Kennedy gasped out softly under her breath when Mercedes pulled back, pulling the vase like object out of Kennedy's coat as she did so and holding it up in front of her.

"Kennedy, why you little," Spike started to growl angrily as he stormed out of the elevator before Mercedes tore her attention away from her soul and stepped in between them, late enough that she and Spike bumped into each other, though neither gave an inch as her forearms were laying up against his chest and her bent left knee was touching his right knee.

"It's here, Spike, this is it," Mercedes sputtered out with an overwhelmed look on her face as she looked up into Spike's eyes, her own bursting with stars of excitement, with the smile spread across her face making her even more beautiful.

"Gonna have to be a bit more specific here pet," Spike pointed out softly with a confused and none to impressed look on his face, as he stayed in place, before Angel loudly coughed beside them and diverted their attention. Spike said nothing but Nina raised an eyebrow and gave them a knowing look, before a confused look crossed onto her face.

"It's my soul," Mercedes eagerly explained as she leaned back a bit and held the vase like object up for Spike to see.

"Your what," Nina demanded with a stunned look on her face as she quickly looked to Angel in the hope that he would have an answer.

"Her soul, I found it when I went through the Immortal's office, he almost caught me but I hid in the closet until he left," Kennedy answered for Mercedes as she stepped forward in Angel's direction, ignoring the snicker that she heard come from somewhere over in Connor's direction.

"Are you crazy, that was a very stupid thing to do," Angel declared with a very disapproving scowl on his face as his hands found his waist and he let out an impatient sigh.

"True Peaches, though if this really is her soul," Spike said back with a curious look on his face as he turned towards Kennedy as she nodded her head in agreement.

"It's her soul all right," Willow interjected with a very truthful and matter of fact tone to her voice and look on her face as she stepped in front of Dawn and slowly nodded her head, staring straight at Angel even though Kennedy was trying to catch her eye.

"Willow…what are you," Kennedy gasped out with a surprised and nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, as she was scared about what might happen.

"I could say the same thing," Willow sharply replied back as she sent a quick glare Kennedy's way before Gwen broke it all up.

"Come on people let's move, we haven't got all night," Gwen exclaimed with a very determined and authoritative tone to her voice as she pushed by Angel and Spike and headed towards the door.

END OF CHAPTER 32

Author's Note: The chapter starts out with the beginnings of the meeting between Gwen and the others about the job that she wants them to do. Most of the group are going to stay back at the apartments and be safe while Spike and Angel take point, Faith goes along for back up, Gwen goes along to make sure it gets done, and Wesley will stay back and be the teams eyes and ears. The Buffy and Giles part is about them actually beginning to question what they think of as truth and wondering if Willow knows something that they don't and it scares Buffy. Vi reinforces the thought with her words as since she's single and not a party animal she's watched an awful lot of late night movies over the years and so she's seen plots like this before and points it out. Vi likes Andrew and so she kind of wants to be near him. He doesn't jump away from her because he's to busy with what he's doing to notice her immediately. Faith and Wesley talk about the upcoming mission as Faith is getting dressed for it and Wesley teases her a little bit. Yeah the True Lies thing might be a bit weird or stupid but it was funny at the time to me so I put it in here, thinking that Dawn might watch the movie if it came on. Their part ends with the call to arms of sorts for the mission. Mercedes comes into play when she's made to watch Illyria, something that she finds very boring, seeing as how she's itching for some action, in more ways than one. Kennedy's sudden arrival is a pleasant surprise as is the fact that she has her soul somehow. When Spike and Angel show up in the lobby with the others to start the mission Angel is skeptical but Mercedes seems to want to show off her soul to Spike to get his approval, as she still wants to please him even though he's not her sire. Willow comes in at the end and isn't happy to see Kennedy but remains calm for the sake of the mission at hand. Gwen then interrupts and almost literally drags the team out of the lobby after her. So in closing thanks to everyone for reading, suggestions and questions are welcome, my forum is open and feel free to ask questions in your reviews, which are always appreciated.


	33. The Waiting Is The Worst Part

DOMINO 1-2-3 

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I've created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 33-THE WAITING IS THE WORST PART**

The ride to the necromancer's mansion was done in almost total silence, with the only sounds being Wesley flipping through the pages of information on their target and its owner. Faith sat beside him trying to catch a quick nap, with a pair of dark sunglasses over her eyes as she sat nestled in the seat beside Wesley with her head laid back up against the headrest. Shortly after she had fallen asleep Wesley had gingerly taken his coat off and carefully laid it over her as a sort of makeshift blanket. She had half woken up and taken a sniff before going back to sleep. Spike guessed that she had recognized the coat as Wesley's and simply gone back to sleep, happy for the added warmth. For the most part Angel and Spike stayed silent, almost aimlessly staring out of the heavily tinted windows of the limo. They were almost there when Faith finally spoke up, though she didn't move anything but her mouth.

"How much further," Faith asked softly while keeping almost totally still before she yawned deeply and popped her neck.

"We're almost there luv, just a little bit further," Wesley softly whispered back with a sly smirk on his face as he leaned back in his seat and laid his head to the side so that even through the darkness of the back of the limo he could see small stars in her eyes.

"Good, cause while I might look comfortable I'm about this far from getting a bitchin cramp in my leg," Faith whispered back with an uncomfortable smile on her face before she shifted in her seat a little bit, all while trying not to make to much noise.

"I could help you with that you know," Wesley said back with a content tone to his voice as he reached across the small gap between them and laid his left hand on top of hers.

"What did you," Faith started to snicker back with a daringly evil glint in her eyes before Spike coughed loudly and scowled at them both.

"Find any good ways in with all of those maps," Spike asked with an apprehensive look on his face as he pulled a small knife out of the sleeve of his duster and began to slowly turn it back and forth, watching what little light there was in the back of the car shine off of it.

"Yes Spike…I have, there's an air duct on the roof that leads down to a fan that blows air out of the kitchen, if the two of you could repel down into that duct and somehow remove the fan without making to much noise you could enter the house that way and have a means of escape that could provide much better cover for you than simply running out the front gate," Wesley replied with an impatient scowl on his face as he didn't like questions being shot at him while he was trying to get the buzzing in his head to stop.

"Sounds good Wes, a little to good, what's the catch," Angel asked softly with a curious look on his face as he sat up in his seat and then scowled heavily as he checked his watch.

"Well the catch is that all of the vents are computer controlled, if any one of them stops functioning for longer than a few seconds an alarm goes off on the computer and they'd be alerted before you retrieved the stone," Wesley answered softly with an apprehensive look on his face as he half shrugged his shoulders and tried to appear positive.

"So it's just a little catch then," Spike grumbled out sharply with a very sarcastic scowl on his face as he leaned back in his seat some more and soon his face was lost in the darkness.

"Spike," Angel growled with a frayed look on his face, as he shot his grandchild a venomous glare, before he turned back to Wesley and softened his tone. "Is there some way to get around that safeguard, like knock the system offline just long enough for us to get in, get the stone, and then get back out," Angel asked with a very serious look on his face as he took in a large useless breath and then let it back out.

"Genius there Angel, we do that and they'll know something's up, no…you've got the right idea but we have to think of something else," Gwen interjected with a very grave scowl on her face and impatient tone to her voice as she leaned forward in between Wesley and Angel's gazes, breaking the odd stare down going on between them for at least a few seconds.

"What if we…well I, were to start something out in the front yard, draw them all outside, then there wouldn't be anyone inside to hear or notice the little message about the vent," Faith offered up with a tired yawn as she sat up in her seat and joined the discussion, though she kept Wesley's coat wrapped tightly around her.

"Wouldn't work," Wesley started to say with a nervous and anxious look on his face as he shook his head before Faith countered.

"What, why not," Faith snapped with an impatient and surprised look on her face as she glared over at Wesley, almost throwing his coat back at him before he answered.

"Because there are to many guards and not even you could keep them all busy for that long Faith, it'd be suicide," Wesley said back with a stern and honest look on his face, as the whole time Faith stared straight into his eyes, judging for herself if he was lying or not. When she was satisfied that he was telling the truth, and that his reasoning was sound she let out a small grumble and then leaned back in her seat.

"Not if I helped her out it wouldn't," Gwen stated with an excited smile on her face as it appeared that she had more of an idea than she was letting on.

"Meaning," Spike asked with a pointed look of disbelief on his face, as he hazarded a glance over at Faith, before he went quiet as Gwen answered.

"Meaning that the diversion would be larger…and safer, if there was two of us doing it, they wouldn't be able to focus all of their firepower on Faith, they'd have to take me on to," Gwen answered softly with a very determined look on her face as Faith only briefly glanced at her while she spoke, preferring to watch the look on Wesley's face as she believed that the idea was good, she just hoped that he did as well.

"Well," Spike asked with a curious look on his face as he turned to Angel, who had stayed oddly quiet during the brief argument.

"Sounds good," Angel calmly said with a slight nod of his head before he scowled and leaned back into the darkness.

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"You know more than you're letting on don't you," Buffy said with an unhappily curious look on her face as she stood in front of Robin, hoping that he wouldn't try to lie to her again.

"What," Robin said back with a surprised look on his face before he shook his head and turned away, walking back to the couch to pick up his bag.

"You know or at least have a better idea than we do about what's really going on here and for some reason you've been lying to us since you first showed up here in Rome, are we on the wrong side and you're just waiting for us to figure it out for ourselves," Buffy demanded with a very serious look on her face as she rushed over and blocked him from picking up his bag.

"Whatever gave you that idea," Robin replied with an almost mocking smile on his face as he shrugged Buffy off and picked his bag up.

"Because you seem to come and go at will, only showing up when you need help, and the moment that you learn something from us you're gone again, call it a hunch," Buffy declared with a very serious look on her face as she moved in front of the door to the room, hoping to keep him with her until he answered her questions.

"I thought you stopped believing in hunches when your last one didn't pay off, didn't it take like three months for Dawn's hair to stop standing on end," Robin replied with a sly grin on his face as he did his best not to laugh outright at the memory, though he couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.

"Four actually…but that's not the point, and…wait a minute, how'd you know about that, you weren't here when that happened, you were supposedly in South Africa," Buffy started to reply back at first with a happy chuckle before she remembered that Robin hadn't been there to see any of it.

"I have friends Miss Summers, we talk from time to time, they tell me of any amusing stories that come up, the story of what happened to your sister gave me a good laugh I must admit," Robin said back with a content smile on his face as he went to brush her aside and leave the room.

"I bet it did, but let me tell you something…Mr. Wood, Dawn didn't find it very funny at all, and it bugs me that you're being so relaxed about all of this," Buffy snapped back with a very serious and determined look on her face as she balled up her fists and leaned back up against the door.

"She wasn't hurt so other than a little bit of cosmetic problems she came through it just fine, now if you'll excuse me," Robin started to say with a slightly more serious look on his face as he laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Take your hand off of my shoulder unless you want every single bone in it broken beyond repair, when my sister is sad I'm sad, now you are going to tell me what I want to know or else," Buffy declared with a deadly serious look on her face as she glared straight back into Robin's eyes, leaving him little doubt of her full intent to do just as she promised.

"Fine…what do you want to know," Robin relented with more of an impatient sigh than a defeated one as he pulled his hand off of her shoulder and walked back into the room, calmly sitting down on the couch.

"Why are you really here," Buffy asked softly, with a bit of a surprised tone to her voice before she recovered her composure quickly, but not before Robin noticed it, and took a step away from the door.

"I think you already know, or at least have an idea about that," Robin casually replied with a confidant smile on his face as he leaned back in his seat a bit.

"To learn what's really going on here and if necessary kill to stop it," Buffy softly mumbled out under her breath with both a shocked and overwhelmed expression on her face as she shook her head and stopped heading for the couch.

"Not exactly…but you're close enough, since I left the council I've bettered myself," Robin started to say with a proud smile on his face as he calmly smoothed out his tie and looked to be completely comfortable.

"You left the council because Faith caught you cheating on her with another slayer, a younger slayer no less, and as for making yourself better…well that depends on how you look at it right, depending on your point of view," Buffy stated back with a very serious look on her face as she unclenched her fists and awkwardly brushed off the front pockets of her jeans.

"I left…because I had outgrown the new council's trappings, my relationship with Faith just helped make the decision to leave that much easier," Robin replied with a small stutter to his voice as he tried to remain looking calm and as if Buffy's questions hadn't faze him in the slightest.

"Funny…she didn't see it that way, she saw it as you running away rather than being a man and facing the music," Buffy snapped back with a clearly mocking tone to her voice as she walked back over to a chair and sat down.

"Faith has a way of messing with the truth, shaping it so that it suits her interests," Robin said back with a sly smirk on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and appeared to be almost bored talking to Buffy.

"The you sleeping with another slayer wasn't a lie Robin, she didn't have to shape that," Buffy grumbled back with an upset scowl on her face as she was having to do her best to keep herself from getting to angry.

"True, however what she has done since then is none of my fault, no matter how you want to see it," Robin replied with a conciliatory smile on his face as he looked to be washing himself of being held responsible for anything that Faith had done after catching him in bed with the other slayer.

"You'd like to think that wouldn't you, but if you hadn't done that she'd probably still be on our side instead of helping Angel," Buffy shot back with an accusing glare on her face as she sat up straight in her chair and looked straight at him.

"She's wild and unpredictable Buffy, you and I both know that, you can't tame her…you can't trust her any more than you can trust a wild animal, she looks after herself first, she's incapable of ever truly loving anyone or anything," Robin stated back with a very clear tone of voice, leaving Buffy to believe that he had probably practiced this answer many times in case anyone asked.

"So that's it right, you two were getting close and she freaked…and you couldn't handle it so you found someone new," Buffy grumbled back with an unconvinced scowl on her face as she slid out to the edge of her seat, almost silently daring Robin to try again.

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"I should have gone with them," Mercedes grumbled with an impatient scowl on her face as she sat down on the couch beside Dawn and started to flip channels on the television.

"We went over this, you know to much for the Immortal to let you live, he'd kill you if he got his hands on you," Willow grumbled back with an impatient scowl on her face as it was clear that she was only not dusting Mercedes because of that usefulness.

"So you don't think that I can handle myself, I'd like to see that bastard try to," Mercedes started to declare with an impatient frown on her face before Dawn interrupted.

"That's it you two, you don't have to like each other we just have to stand each other long enough for Angel and Spike and the others to get back from getting that stone thing and then getting rid of the Immortal, after that you guys can kill each other for all I care," Dawn snapped with an irritated frown on her face as she scowled heavily over at Mercedes before she turned her glare up at Willow.

"Dawn," Willow began to say with a nervous look on her face as she tried to keep her cool and not fly off the handle.

"Maybe we should be worrying about how we're going to get that other book so that Wesley can translate the one that we already have rather than about how we're going to kill each other," Nina offered with an anxious expression on her face as she stepped into the room, leaning heavily on the doorframe.

"When they get back we'll just waltz over there and take the stupid book right out from under their noses, they won't even miss it," Mercedes pouted back with a quick roll of her eyes and a scoffing sound as she turned away and stared straight ahead at the television.

"Unless of course they've figured out what we're after and hidden it away, setting a trap for anyone foolish enough…to try and just walk in and take it," Willow shot back with an almost mocking tone to her voice as she glared daggers back at Mercedes, who appeared not to notice.

"I could retrieve the tome, it would not be that difficult," Illyria said with an oddly confused look on her face as she seemed to be almost annoyed by all of the talk that was going on over something that she deemed very trivial.

"No one's going anywhere okay…we have to remember the plan, we stay here and wait until they get back, then we get that stupid book and," Kennedy argued with a tired yawn as she walked into the room, carefully carrying the vase like object that held Mercedes' soul within it.

"Can we talk about something else please…anything else," Nina asked with an eerily fearful look on her face, as she didn't like where the talk was going.

"Not really much else to talk about," Willow mumbled out softly with an apprehensive pout on her face as she shuffled her feet a little bit and turned to look out of the window.

"We could talk about how we're going to convince your sister and the others that they're on the wrong side," Connor announced with a nervous smile on his face as he sat up straight in his seat beside Dawn on the couch and looked around.

"A very good idea, we must have a plan of attack," Groo agreed with a proud smile on his face as he slowly nodded his head while standing guard at the door.

"We can't just attack them Groo, as much as we might want to, if we just rush in there guns a blazing they won't listen to a single word that we say, if we have any chance in hell at convincing them that we're not possessed or whatever they think we have to get proof that what we're saying is true," Kate said with a very thoughtful frown on her face as she kept clicking the safety of her gun off and on, a nervous habit.

"Then once again…we're royally screwed, because the Immortal would rather kill us all than give us anything that'd help convince Buffy or anyone else for that matter that he's bad," Dawn grumbled out softly with an unhappy pout on her face before she smiled a bit as Connor laid his hand on her shoulder and tried to smile at her.

END OF CHAPTER 33

Author's Notes: This chapter starts out with the group on their way to the necromancers mansion and their discussion about how to get in, get the stone, and then get out without alerting the guards any more than they have to. Faith takes the time to try to get some sleep, mostly because all that she has to do is be a decoy for Angel and Spike to give them time to get in and get out. Wesley and the others talk about several options and end up deciding to have Gwen and Faith provide a distraction out front allowing Angel and Spike slip in. Wesley has another painful episode but fights through it.

After that we switch to Buffy and Robin talking about how she thinks that he knows more than he's letting on and she's getting frustrated by the idea that everyone else knows more than her and isn't talking. He tries to act all calm and relaxed and as if he finds her questions funny but she threatens him with her slayer strength and gets him to talk. The topic quickly turns to Faith and we see that Robin doesn't really care what happens to Faith and that he's put his whole relationship with her in the past and wants it left there. Buffy tries to get him to admit that what he did was wrong and he comes close to doing it but then tries to absolve himself of anything that Faith has done since the breakup.

Then comes the talk of everyone else that was left behind at Gwen's apartments and how the wait is driving them crazy. Willow and Mercedes start to go at it before Dawn snaps and yells at them. The topic quickly switches to how to get the other book that Wesley needs to translate the first one. That lasts for a little bit before other talk drowns it out, talk like trying to figure out how to convince Buffy and the others not to trust the Immortal. That bit ends with Dawn basically repeating her view that they're in over their heads and don't have much chance of convincing anyone.

In closing thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing this story, sorry about how long its been to this update but my hours have gotten switched around twice at work and I've had plenty of new video games so my time to type is limited. But they just changed my hours again so hopefully I'll have more time to type now. As always reviews and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank You.


	34. The Plan Hits A Snag

DOMINO 1-2-3 DOMINO 1-2-3

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 34-THE PLAN HITS A SNAG**

"Are you sure about this Wes," Faith asked with a concerned look on her face as she kept her gaze intently focused on Wesley as the two made their way towards a grove of trees that lined the necromancer's estate.

"No…not really, but what choice do I have, we need that stone or else Gwen is going to kick us out on our collective asses," Wesley replied with a nervous tone to his voice as he did his best to crouch down behind a row of bushes that lined the property.

"Normally I'd say that you're crazy and that she wouldn't do something like that, but with this witch…she just might," Faith joked back with an amused tone to her voice before she put her arm out for Wesley to use as something to balance himself with if he needed it.

"Don't let her hear you say that, her ego is already fragile enough with even having to ask us for help, she hates to admit it when she comes up against something or someone that she can't deal with herself, she hates being thought of as being weak," Wesley replied with a serious look of apprehension in his eyes as he struggled to breathe regularly while keeping up with Faith.

"I can relate," Faith said back with a sly smirk on her lips as she and Wesley navigated across a small creek.

"Unfortunately all to well," Wesley joked back with a darkly grim grin on his face as he flashed it at Faith before she scowled and spoke.

"No comments from the peanut gallery okay Wes, looks let's just do this and go home, both of us need our beauty sleep," Faith sarcastically pouted back with an impatient frown creasing her lips before she helped Wesley up a steep embankment on the other side.

"From your beautiful mouth to God's ears luv," Wesley quipped back sharply with a daring and sly grin on his face as he turned to look at Faith.

"Nice try Wes, but you're not getting any tonight," Faith said back softly with a content smile on her lips before she set Wesley straight.

"Why," Wesley shot back under his breath, though he fully had a good idea why not he still wanted to confirm his suspicions.

"Because even if this whole thing goes like clockwork you're still going to be exhausted when it's all said and done, I wouldn't want to break you now after all that we've been through," Faith said back softly eerily jokingly at first before her tone grew much more serious and scared as she spoke.

"I don't break that easily Faith, you more than anyone should know that by now," Wesley said back softly with a very calm but honest tone to his voice and look in his eyes as he grabbed a hold of Faith's arm near her shoulder and made her look at him.

"But you're not at a hundred percent there are ya Wes, you shouldn't even be out here tonight, you should be back in bed getting some rest," Faith shot back with a sly grin on her lips as she lightly poked Wesley in the ribs, making sure not to hit him to hard or in the wrong place.

"That bloody well makes two of us, but we're not that lucky," Spike grumbled out sharply with an annoyed edge to his words as he materialized out of the darkness with Angel following closely behind, both wearing very serious looks.

"Shut up Spike," Faith growled with an annoyed scowl marring her features before Angel stepped in between the two and stopped anything from happening before it could get started.

"Make me," Spike snapped back sharply with a combative tone to his voice and fire in his eyes as it was clear that he was ready for a fight, no matter his opponent.

"I wish that I could let her Spike, but we have a job to do, everybody ready…Wes," Angel growled with an unhappy and irritated scowl on his face and edge to his words as he glared back and forth between Faith and Spike before his expression softened a bit when his gaze fell onto Wesley.

"I've made it this far haven't I," Wesley remarked with a lot of bravado in his voice though Angel could tell by the look in his eyes that his true only worry was if he were to disappoint and hurt Faith by dying.

"Yes…just don't get cocky," Angel grumbled back with an unsure and nervous feeling as he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't quite right about all of this.

"Perish the thought," Faith stated back quickly with a relaxed and confidant grin on her lips before Wesley could say anything as she grabbed him firmly around the bicep on his right arm and started to pull him back and away.

"I think that's more your foible luv," Wesley said softly under his breath to Faith as he leaned down close and whispered it into her ear, to which she smiled a little to sweetly and then held him close for her reply.

"Let's not get into the blame game shall we Wes, at least not until after we're back in bed and both of us are still breathing and have a heartbeat," Faith shot back also under her breath straight back to Wesley as she kept her gaze locked firmly on Angel, who thankfully was busy talking something over with both Spike and Gwen at that moment instead of looking her way, though he heard every word.

"Yes mum," Wesley snickered back with a dirty look in his eyes and grin on his lips before he leaned in close and placed a strong kiss on Faith's lips.

"Don't call me that," Faith grumbled with an impatient and uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, though not because of Wesley's show of affection, in fact she was thankful that he had done it with others around rather than in secret. She felt as if he was proud of their relationship and that thought bolstered her spirits immensely.

"Is the big bad slayer getting a little touchy before the big rumble," Spike wondered aloud with a curious smirk on his lips as he leaned out from behind Angel, almost daring Faith to try something.

"Leave her alone Spike, we have enough work to do tonight without you causing trouble, let's just get into position and then get this over with, Willow and Dawn can't stay with us forever before Buffy or Giles figures it all out and comes looking, we can't lose the element of surprise or all of this will be for nothing, we clear," Angel growled out sharply at Spike with an angry glare in his eyes as he clenched his hands up tightly into fists and inwardly wished that Spike would do something that'd earn him a swing.

"Crystal Peaches," Spike calmly replied in that special way of his in which he'd change opposite emotions in the blink of an eye, leaving the other person wondering if either emotion had been a truly honest one.

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"I hate just sitting here like this," Dawn grumbled out with an impatient pout as she flopped down onto the couch and lowered her chin down to her chest.

"Ah, is the little key throwing a temper tantrum because she can't go with her boyfriend," Mercedes joked with a mocking pout on her lips before she flicked her tongue out between her teeth as she grinned over at Dawn.

"Spike's not my boyfriend," Dawn snapped back angrily with a hateful glare in her eyes before she realized what she had said and blushed as deeply as her roots, burying her face in a pillow.

"Ooh…looks like I hit a nerve, this might prove very interesting," Mercedes snickered back with a calculating look in her eyes as she began to slowly trail a line from the bottom of her ribcage to a point just below the top of her panty line.

"Leave her alone Mercedes," Kate commanded with an impatient frown as she looked back and away from the window long enough to glare at the still mostly redheaded vampiress.

"Or what, you'll spank me like I'm a bad little girl…hmm, you know what, that actually kind of sounds like fun," Mercedes replied with an impish grin on her lips and kinky fire in her eyes before she ran a finger underneath her panties.

"That's enough Mercedes, like the rest of us Dawn is just worried about how the raid is going to go, the last thing that we need from you is to be harassed about who we're in love with," Willow snapped back at first with a clear touch of venom in her voice before she regained her senses and composure and altered her tone.

"I can't help it, it's in my nature to," Mercedes started to say back with an eerie smile and shrug of her shoulders before Kate spoke up from the corner near the fireplace.

"Act like a total bitch to everyone," Kate interjected with a grimly amused smirk on her lips while there was a combative fire in her eyes.

"Ya see, now here I was thinking that was your job Lockley," Mercedes quipped dryly with a faint hint of an amusing smirk playing itself across her lips before she turned her head towards Kate and silently bathed in the warm firelight.

"If I wasn't pregnant I'd," Kate began to growl sharply with a combative fire in her eyes, as she looked ready to get up from her seat before Mercedes interrupted her.

"You'd what…fuck me, sorry but I really only like the hot ladies, er…the ones that aren't self absorbed sluts that is," Mercedes snapped back with a very dark and amused twinkle in her smile as her fangs just began to lengthen before she shut her mouth and sat fully back down.

"Oh, what about Spike," Willow asked with a curious and confused tone to her words and look in her eyes as she looked up from her computer screen, not wanting to catch Mercedes' gaze.

"What do you mean," Mercedes asked softly with a tone of voice and look on her face that seemed to suggest that she was trying to appear as if she didn't have a clue as to what was behind Willow's question.

"I've seen how you look at him, what it's not bad enough that you're trying to steal Kennedy away from me that you want Spike to," Willow shot back, emboldened now by speaking about someone that she still held dear, as she tore herself away from the screen of her computer and set her sights squarely on the vampiress.

"Hey, I was with Spike years ago…I can't help it, he's the only guy that gets me really hot," Mercedes shrugged softly with a relaxed and easy going tone to her words before she broke into a dirty smile and brought both hands up to her breasts and making a point of Willow seeing her give them both a hard squeeze just as she said the word hot.

"Then why did you start screwing Kennedy," Kate interrupted from across the room with a less than gentle tone to her words as she grunted softly from the effort of getting back up to her feet before she started slowly walking towards the couch.

"For the perverse fun of it at first, screwing a slayer's brains out sounded like fun…and I'll let you in on a secret…it was, especially a hot one like her, later on I made the one big mistake…I fell for her," Mercedes started off her answer with a devilish twinkle in her eyes, as Willow could tell that she had enjoyed that part of it, before she couldn't help but lick her lips at the memories of herself and Kennedy in bed together.

"Oh give me a break," Willow groaned loudly in annoyance as she wrinkled up her toes in her sandals and forced herself to stay calm.

"Hey now, don't make fun of me, just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean that I don't know how to love, though to be honest I'm not really sure how much I love her," Mercedes shot back angrily at first before she calmed down a bit into an almost arrogant and all to cocky grin, her teeth a bright white.

"Well you sure picked a fine time to figure that out ya know," Kate scoffed heartily with a clear tone to her words that left little doubt that she didn't believe a single solitary word that Mercedes was saying.

"Maybe, but it sure has been fun while it lasted, well…most of it anyway, damn sure would have changed a couple of things though…no way that I would have let her…end up like that," Mercedes countered with a small shrug of her shoulders, being more confidant than usual, before her tone grew much more serious as she began to talk about her lost love.

"Yeah well you should have known that working for someone like the Immortal could only bring…uh er, sorry," Willow began to state with a very confidant and yet at the same time upset and frustrated countenance to her before her better nature resurfaced and she managed to calm herself back down.

"Willow," Kate hissed in surprised frustration, and even a little bit of anger, as she lightly leaned over the back of the couch and laid a hand on Willow's shoulder.

"No…it's okay, I deserved it, she's right, I should have known what working for someone…something…like the Immortal could only end badly for me, but I was so happy just to feel needed," Mercedes admitted with a half tone of sarcasm to her words as she shook her head and stared out of the window, wishing that she could have been brought along for the fight instead of staying back at the base.

"It's only natural to feel wanted, though I didn't know that vampires had the same feelings as humans, given that you're all demons," Willow calmly pointed out at first, as if what she was saying was something that she believed that everyone believed, before she blushed a bit at the end as she tried to tailor the statement to Mercedes.

"Maybe for a human like you, but for vampires…we're demons ya know, we're not supposed to give a damn about friends…feelings, any of that shit," Mercedes remarked with an annoyed scowl and tone to her words, as if she were very upset for even having to talk about the matter.

"But it doesn't always work out like that…does it, it didn't for Angel," Kate pointed out with an unconvinced expression on her face before she walked over and sat down in one of the chairs next to the couch.

"Or Spike," Willow added quickly, interrupting the former officer, with a look of keen interest on her face as she sat up a little straighter in her seat and looked squarely at Mercedes.

"Well that's the shit isn't it, for some reason those two don't act like normal vampires…never have, and I doubt it's because they both have souls, they should be more…more," Mercedes grumped back softly with a noticeably irritated edge to her words before she jumped up out of her seat and lightly padding across the carpet until she pushed aside the curtains and leaned her forehead gently against the window.

"Despicably and irrevocably evil perhaps, more like the demons that they were," Kate observed, her voice softening just a little bit as she spoke, as she shifted her position in her seat just a bit before then suppressing a burp.

"Something like that, I mean back in the day Spike and I would drink a chalet totally dry and then fuck like crazy in the master bedroom, sheets soaked clear through with blood…God that was fun, how he would," Mercedes began to explain with a clear tone to her words before a sickeningly nostalgic smile that spread from one side of her lips to the other. Then she threw her head back, closed her eyes, and really got into the moment, with one hand sliding down her stomach until it disappeared into the front of her shorts, and the other snaking up until she could give both breasts a quick and hard squeeze.

"Is she…I think I'm gonna be sick," Kate gasped out in shock before her cheeks bulged and she tried to get up out of her chair, but couldn't.

"Me to, let's go," Willow sulked along with an equally grossed out expression as she set her laptop aside onto the coffee table before she stood up and helped Kate up out of her chair. The two left the room as quickly as they could, leaving Mercedes to her own devices.

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"You'd think that if you were a necromancer you'd want to live next to a cemetery or someplace like that," Spike whispered back to Angel with a dry tone to his words, no hint of a joke or mockery in his words.

"Wouldn't that be a little to easy Spike, any graves turn up empty and the first place that anyone would turn would be the neighbor next door, whether he'd done anything or not," Wesley grimly stated as he slowly shook his head, being very careful to do it slow enough so that his vision wouldn't blur and his head wouldn't swim, at least any more than usual on this night.

"Guilt by location, been there…done that," Faith quipped out with a dark pout pursing her lips, as it was clear that she was trying to add a little levity to the situation but even she was fully aware that her attempt would and had failed.

"Okay fine, people today are far to nosy," Spike grouched back as he gritted his teeth with his mouth closed as he mentally began to prepare himself for the task in front of him.

"No argument here," Angel agreed with an almost completely emotionless look on his face as he stepped back behind a tree, gently leaning his back up against it, taking a needless breath along the way.

"Well it's all well and good that we agree then alright, but that doesn't get us any closer to actually completing our mission and getting a certain someone off of our backs," Wesley countered with a less than being of full health look to him as he felt a cool bead of sweat trickling down the back of his neck.

"Wait a minute, we can't do this tonight," Faith groaned with a look of realization on her face, as she fought back against the urge to smack herself on the forehead for her failure to realize the blatantly obvious complication in the plan.

"What…why," Angel demanded with a completely confused look as Faith's words interrupted him as he started to reach into his pockets to arm himself.

"This piece of shit necromancer hasn't invited you in yet," Faith announced with an alarmed expression and tone to her words before she turned her head and matched concerned gazes with Wesley.

"Do I need to mention how pathetic we are to just notice that now," Spike sputtered out with an incredibly annoyed growl low in his throat before he began to fidget in his pockets, as if searching for cigarettes.

"No…but if it'll help make you feel any better I can remind you," Angel grouched out as his two cents worth as he momentarily squeezed his eyes tightly shut and then rolled them.

"Well someone here had better figure out another way of getting in there and getting that stone…or else you can all find a new place to hide out from a certain blonde slayer," Gwen countered with a barely restrained tone of anger and disappointment as she stormed up in between Spike and Angel.

"Easy luv, we never said that we couldn't get in" Spike started to argue with his usual snarky tone of voice, as he purely didn't like Gwen making any kind of reference to Buffy, feeling that she hadn't earned that right yet.

"It'll only take a little more thinking first," Angel finished for Spike with a tone to his words and a posture that seemed to suggest that he fully expected Spike to have an angry retort immediately ready.

"We're doomed," Wesley joked darkly with a completely serious expression on his face before he caught the laughter in Faith's eyes even though her expression betrayed nothing.

"We're not doomed, ole Angel here will just have to put that big brain of his to work and figure something out," Faith finally commented with a quick rolling of her eyes and short breath before she leaned over and lightly patted Angel on the shoulder.

"Big brain," Angel softly whispered with a confused look to him, appearing as if he hadn't thought of that way of describing himself yet.

"Yeah well…with that big forehead and all it's gotta be at least," Wesley tried to reply on the sly, starting out with a relaxed and helpful drawl in his speech before he did his very best to make a joke, even if it was a bad one, earning him a scornful look from Angel for his effort.

"Not funny Wes," Angel glowered back with a rather serious glare aimed straight at Wesley, showing that he was not amused by his statement.

"Really…I thought that it was hilarious, top of the line stuff," Faith added with an eerily calm look to her before she couldn't help but crack one of her trademark sly grins.

"Right, and the little but ever so important fact that you're shagging him every night wouldn't have anything to do with it…would it," Spike softly wondered aloud, staring straight ahead and with an eerily casual and calm tone to his words, as he awkwardly began to fumble around in his pockets, searching for a phantom pack of cigarettes. Gripping her hands tightly into fists Faith started to take a step towards Spike but stopped when she felt Wesley's hand on her shoulder, never seeing the look that Angel was giving her, silently begging her to keep her composure and not fly off of the handle.

END OF CHAPTER 34


	35. The Plan Begins

DOMINO 1-2-3 DOMINO 1-2-3

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 35-THE PLAN BEGINS**

Gwen's Loft

"Is that Gwen's robe," Dawn asked with an unsure frown as she looked up from her quart of ice cream, one with a name that she couldn't pronounce, nearly dropping the spoon when Mercedes softly padded into the kitchen, her hair still dripping wet from a shower and apparently wearing only a bathrobe.

"Isn't that Gwen's ice cream," Mercedes shot back, though a bit more playfully than Dawn initially took it, before she took a moment to stretch, knowing full well that her bathrobe was probably falling fully open at that moment.

"Huh…well uh, urk…hey…I'm trying to eat here ya know," Dawn started to reply with a slight stutter to her words before she got an eyeful, more than she had ever wanted, of a wet and naked Mercedes, before she turned away.

"So…hey speaking of which do you think that this stuck up bitch of a landlady has any blood on hand," Mercedes shrugged back with a slightly somber pout before she relented and frowned as she slowly folded her bathrobe closed and then tied it shut.

"What for, wait I," Dawn pondered at first with a slightly unsure and frumpy expression before she screwed her face up in disgust and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, adding a bit of a loud groan nearly dropping her spoon.

"To eat silly, of course if you've changed your mind and would be willing to let me have a nibble," Mercedes cracked at first as she walked to the refrigerator and then began to casually rummage around through it.

"Mercedes," Dawn exclaimed loudly as she tried to first shake the idea itself out of her head and then when that failed to send such a venomous glare towards the vampiress that she wouldn't even think of putting that plan into action anytime in the next century.

"Well it was just a suggestion, don't take everything so personal, you'll live a lot longer," Mercedes laughed back out of the refrigerator as she passed over a store bought steak, complete with a little bit of blood seeping out, and instead settled on a bottle of beer, ripping the top off with her bare hands before taking a quick swig.

"Aren't you supposed to be hibernating or something," Dawn questioned passionately, at that moment wanting nothing more than for Mercedes to leave her alone.

"That's bears honey," Mercedes started to say with an amused and slightly confused smirk that began to curl up the edges of her lips.

"I know…grr…whatever, I'm going to find Willow," Dawn angrily grumped with a tired sigh before she hopped off of her stool and hurried out of the kitchen, glaring at Mercedes as she went.

"Some people just don't know how to take a joke," Mercedes softly replied with an almost bored expression on her face, allowing the bathrobe to fall back down off of her shoulders, only casting a quick glance at Dawn's retreating form through the tops of her eyelids.

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The Necromancer's House

"Buzz off slim," Spike snapped out sharply under his breath with a clear tone of disdain in his words as he stared straight ahead at a spider entombing an unfortunate fly in its web.

"And they wonder why you're called the problem child," Wesley remarked with an amused smirk curling up one corner of his lips as he fumbled around in one of his pockets for a few moments before producing a pack of cigarettes and handing them to Spike.

"Heh, everybody's a bleedin comedian," Spike tried to pout out softly in his usual sarcastic tone of voice, though even through the dim light Wesley could see a faint look of appreciation briefly cross the vampires face.

"Yeah that's our Wes alright, begging for a place on Comedy Central," Angel supplied with a less than genuine tone accompanied by a tired and worn out look to him, as he looked fully ready to break something at a moments notice out of frustration.

"This is not a joking matter, our time is running out, unless you two want to end up a couple of crispy critters," Gwen snapped out loud, interrupting the small bit of revelry, as Faith walked forward a few steps looking a little lost in thought.

"What if Faith and I were to," Wesley started to suggest, with a serious look of intense concentration on his face, before Gwen again cut him off.

"Won't work slim," Gwen interjected, using a slightly different tactic in the hopes of easing the tension just a bit, as she stepped in between the two and glared at both.

"Why not, it sounded good to me," Faith asked with a both honest and defensive tone to her words as she reappeared in Gwen's field of vision by Wesley's shoulder.

"Because you look like a convict, I wonder why," Gwen said, pointing out something that was blatantly obvious in her mind, as she leaned forward a little bit and tried to further punctuate her point by grinning as she finished speaking.

"Stuck up rich," Faith angrily muttered mostly under her breath as she balled her hands up into fists and took a couple of strong steps back towards Gwen before Angel got to her first. He stepped in front of Wesley and positioned himself in between the two women, knowing that this wasn't the time for a fight.

"Easy Faith, now is not the time," Angel cautioned strongly with a deep and needless deep breath in an attempt to calm his already frayed nerves.

"Anyway, I cannot be seen here during any part of this, otherwise he'll know that we're here for the stone, we can't let that happen," Gwen declared with a very determined scowl as she stepped back into the shadows, hoping that she hadn't already been noticed.

"Okay then here's what we're going to do, Wesley and Faith will go to the door posing as a married couple whose car has broke down and they need to use the phone, then while Wesley is calling no one in particular Faith will subdue the guards around her," Angel offered with a guarded but hopeful half shrug of his shoulders before looking up and focusing all of his attention on Faith and Wesley. Wesley stayed serious but Faith looked a little flushed at the idea of playing a woman married to Wesley.

"Leaving me to get the rest…but that still doesn't help us out very much, it doesn't help us get you or Spike into the house to help search for the stone, we no longer have all night to look for it," Wesley pointed out through a slight cough, earning a concerned look and a hand on his shoulder from Faith, before he slid both hands into his pockets to keep the others from noticing that they were shaking slightly.

"Then we'll help make it a little easier on you," Spike let slip out with an oddly cocky half grin on his lips as he took a step forward towards the house.

"Meaning," Angel glowered with a serious scowl darkening his features before Spike waived him off with a relaxed shrug.

"Well…what would make this night even better would be a little spot of violence," Spike drawled back with a definitive nod of his head, looking fully ready for and excited about the possibility of having to fight.

"Is that all you ever think about," Gwen began to suggest with a clear expression of disdain etched onto her face before Spike smirked, stopping her.

"Hardly, at the moment I'm thinking about a certain slayer in the shower," Spike quipped with a sly grin that was just beginning to curl up one side of his lips.

"Leave it to you Spike to drag it all down," Angel spat out in impatience while sending a venomous glare towards his protégé that it would be best for him not to say anymore.

"Hey," Faith softly grouched under her breath with a slightly none to soft elbow to Wesley's side, though the scowl on her face was more for show than revealing her actual feelings on the subject.

"Only you Faith…only you," Wesley painfully whispered back with a slight wince before he felt Faith step in a bit closer to him and her hand came to rest softly on the small of his back, concern evident in her gaze.

"He'll be fine once we get this over with…I know I will," Gwen added with an irritated scowl before Wesley reluctantly nodded his head in agreement while beginning to fish around in his pockets for a set of car keys.

"You two figured things out yet," Spike questioned with an oddly serious half smirk as he started to walk away from the group, looking for somewhere to launch the attack from.

"Hell no, I prefer to do things on the fly, but don't worry your pretty little head about us, we'll hold up our end of the bargain…just try not to drop the ball okay, we're only going to get one shot at this, come on Wes," Faith interrupted with her usual confidant tone as she cast a quick glance in Spike's general direction before she took Wesley by the hand and the two hurried off, as fast as he could manage safely, towards the house.

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"It's a little late…don't you think Buffy," Giles commented softly, using his best librarian voice that he dredged up from his early years in Sunnydale, as he slowly took off his glasses with one hand while using the other to as softly as possible pull the cord on the small lamp that was sitting in the middle of the small table.

"Giles…ah…uh, what are you doing up this late, it's almost dawn…heh," Buffy clumsily answered as she walked past Giles and headed for the kitchen, hoping that she would get lucky and he would let it pass.

"Wondering where my slayer had run off to as this hour, the Immortal called several times you know, I did my best to pacify him but he's no fool Buffy, I believe that he knows that I was simply blowing smoke," Giles called out after her as initially he stayed firmly rooted in his seat, intent on making her come back and talk to him, but soon he gave up, shut the small lamp off, and stood up.

"Please…it's way to early in the morning for you to even think of finishing that sentence, I was out," Buffy shrugged back with a grossed out expression as she fumbled around for the light switch for a few moments before she found it.

"Looking for Willow and Dawn," Xander questioned from the darkness before he softly padded into the kitchen, yawning deeply as Giles followed Buffy far enough to stop and stand in the opposite doorway.

"Um…well actually…yeah, that's it, I was out looking for Willow and Dawn, but I obviously didn't find them," Buffy stuttered and stammered through what she knew full well to be a horrible lie, silently hiding the embarrassed and shameful blush creeping up onto her cheeks by opening up the refrigerator door and ducking behind it.

"How hard did you look Buffy, Vi's been scouring the internet all day trying to find any trace of Willow, check with all of her friends that we know of, see if any of them has heard from her," Xander questioned, his voice full of disbelief, as he reached up and gently tried to rub a little bit more sleep out of his eye.

"Did she have any luck," Buffy asked back, with a quick smile towards Giles before her face fell instantly as he didn't seem impressed by her enthusiasm.

"Unfortunately no…but then you would have known that already because Vi said that she tried to call you on your cell phone hours ago," Xander frowned as he sluggishly pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Huh…really, I had it with me all night and…oops, guess I must have turned it off, silly me," Buffy tried to laugh off in her reply with a half shrug of her shoulders as she slowly pulled her cell phone from her pocket and checked it.

"Where were you really Buffy…and don't lie again, please," Andrew demanded, oddly taking the initiative and sounding important for once, before his normal temperament returned and he looked away.

"I…okay, I met with Robin Wood," Buffy started to try to come up with a lie that she would have to come up with on the spot, before she let out a shaky breath and decided to just come clean.

"Mr. Wood," Andrew gasped in shock as he nearly dropped the glass that he had just taken out of the cupboard.

"Buffy," Xander grouched out unhappily as clear disappointment colored his tone, before he dropped his head into his hands and ruffled up his hair with both hands.

"I know okay," Buffy groaned back in reply with a bit of pleading in her words as she grabbed a jug of milk out of the refrigerator and shut the door.

"Why didn't you tell us you were going to meet with him, do you know what," Giles half snapped with an irritated twitching of his lips before he walked strongly across the room and made a point of taking the jug of milk from Buffy.

"Yes Giles I know, I know that we can't trust him anymore," Buffy agreed softly with an eager smile and nodding of her head before she slid past Giles and took the glass from Andrew.

"Then why did you even meet with him," Xander said speaking up with a none to impressed and frustrated look to him as he glared over at Andrew with his one good eye, silently telling the former geek that he wanted a glass to.

"I met with him because if he's in town then there's something big going on, and I'd rather know about it before it lands on our doorstep," Buffy said softly, doing her best to try and explain her reasons to the others, reasons that as she spoke she became less sure of herself.

"I can understand not wanting things to keep hitting us unprepared, however I don't think that going off by yourself to have a friendly little chat with someone like Robin Wood is," Giles began to reply, not looking happy to be having to tell Buffy something all over again, before Buffy stepped in.

"Friendly chat…a friendly chat, please Giles…my meeting with him was definitely not a friendly chat," Buffy interjected ruefully, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration while Xander and Andrew shared a combined groan.

"Okay, then how would you describe it," Xander said in the hope of keeping things from getting anymore heated between Buffy and Giles, avoiding another shouting match, which if the former carpenter got right down to it would have to admit that they started the day that Buffy started seeing the Immortal.

"An exchange of ideas," Buffy stumbled through her response, flashing Giles one of her trademark innocent smiles.

"Throw any punches," Andrew squeaked out, with a highly interested gleam in his eyes, before he instantly went silent after seeing the look on Giles' face.

"Unfortunately," Buffy shrugged back, completely at ease, as she hoped that her simple answer would remain just that and not become another topic for them all to argue about.

"Learn anything helpful…or did he just stonewall you again," Xander asked as he took the glasses from everyone, and after taking the jug of milk from Giles, set about pouring everyone a glass of milk.

"He wouldn't tell me everything, but now I'm sure that something's going to go down here…something big, and soon," Buffy reluctantly said before she gave Xander a quick smile in thanks and picked up her glass.

"And you're worried that we're on the wrong side of it, Buffy…we went through this with Angel and Wolfram and Hart in Los Angeles," Giles countered heavily as he pulled out a chair and sat down, his gaze never once leaving Buffy's tired face.

"Yeah…look how well that turned out," Andrew grumped mostly under his breath as he looked away, suddenly shocked at how loud his words had been.

"What's that supposed to mean," Xander demanded almost immediately, after waiting a few seconds for the sudden shock of it all to subside a little.

"Huh…oh uh, nothing," Andrew laughed back at first before silencing himself by taking a rather large drink of milk.

"Right, Andrew…is there something that you want to tell us," Buffy wondered aloud with a curious and concerned furrowing of her brows as she turned to look over at the former geek.

"No…nothing, really," Andrew tried to lie through his teeth, hoping they would all believe him, before he stood up slowly and started to edge back towards the door.

"Well if that were true then why do you look like you just wet the bed," Xander joked loudly with a rather sarcastic edge to his words before Andrew surprisingly cut him off.

"Wet the…heh…I never, that's really funny, yeah and…eek," Andrew began to mumble and stumble through his response, edging ever closer to the door, before he threw in the towel and bolted for the front door.

"Oh my," Giles sputtered back in total shock and surprise, being barely able to hold onto the jug of milk and his glass.

"Geek on the lam," Buffy exclaimed loudly as she slammed her glass of milk down onto the table hard enough to crack both, before she vaulted up and over them and after Andrew.

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"Got any ideas about what name we should use," Faith asked softly with an oddly very uneasy deep breath and shrug of her shoulders as she reached up and fumbled with her hair, finally putting it back behind her ears.

"We could use Price, it's close enough to my real last name so that it wouldn't really be lying…much," Wesley offered with an uneasy pursing of his lips as he momentarily wondered about whether or not he should try to dress himself up a bit, dust his pants off or fix his hair. He was just about to make a decision when Faith spoke.

"Or Le Hane," Faith oddly remarked up in argument before she slackened her pace and looked away, making it a point not to look at Wesley.

"Le Hane, Faith why," Wesley started to ask with a nervous and slightly unsure tone to his words as turned around to fully face her.

"Because…it's…well it's…it's my last name, my real last name," Faith anxiously stuttered back, earning an odd raising of his eyebrow from Wesley, before her resolve stiffened and she calmed down.

"I know…but why bring it up now," Wesley asked, still a bit unsure at what she was getting at, as he took a step back towards her but then stopped when she spoke.

"You know…wait, I probably told you already," Faith impatiently snapped back, more out of frustration than from any actual anger directed towards Wesley. Almost instantly she regretted her words, curling her toes up in her shoes.

"Yes…that uh, that must have been it, listen…I know that you may want to but if I double over in pain and fall to the floor do not, whatever you do…do not, I repeat do not come to my aid," Wesley interjected with a very stern and deadly serious look in his eyes as he ignored Faith's impatience and laid a hand on her shoulder, leaving it there long enough so that he was sure to make her look him in the eye.

"But…yeah, okay, I understand…but what if," Faith forcefully muttered, her gaze never once leaving Wesley's face, before she laid a hand gently on his side.

"Something actually bad happens to me like a punctured lung…if that happens then I'm afraid that all hope is lost," Wesley solemnly said back to her before he leaned in close and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, one that she prolonged while pulling them both into the darkness underneath a nearby tree.

END OF CHAPTER 35


	36. Why Does This Always Happen

DOMINO 1-2-3 DOMINO 1-2-3

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 36-WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN**

Gwen's Loft

"Gotta say…never took you for a voyeur," Mercedes let out along with a deep but useless deep breath as she shut the water off and turned her head to one side, catching sight of the former Texan just standing there silently.

"V…oyeur," Illyria stammered out with an odd and deep in thought expression as she cocked her head to one side as she continued to slowly look the dripping wet Mercedes up and down.

"Yeah…voyeur, it's what we call a person who likes to watch kinky stuff…did you like the show, I know that I can get going sometimes but…that was," Mercedes purred back with a very sultry tone to her words as she shook some water out of her hair and then started to walk towards Illyria, making sure to sway her hips back and forth just right.

"You are a strange one," Illyria replied without even a hint of an expression or edge in her words as she just stayed where she was and simply stared right back at Mercedes.

"Guilty as charged I'm afraid, but okay…enough with the jokes, why are you really here," Mercedes replied, laughing a little, before she finally turned and reached for a towel, only to find that the one that she had hung up was now gone.

"You do not have a soul…however you do not kill the humans…why," Illyria asked with an easygoing tone to her words, as she looked completely uninterested as Mercedes began to look around for her towel.

"I want to…believe me, that little…Dawn, the slayers sister…she sure looks tasty, but I've found that it's better to play by the rules…for now," Mercedes slowly answered, licking her bare lips and flashing slightly pointed fangs.

"Because of that I cannot allow you," Illyria pointed out with a slight nodding of her head before she looked away, as if checking the time on the old clock on the wall nearby.

"Huh, can't allow me to what," Mercedes questioned back with a confused look in her eyes as she cocked her head to one side slightly and frowned.

"Get in the way of my plan," Illyria eerily answered with a small burst of light going off in one eye before she spun around on her heels and clocked Mercedes across the face, hard enough to knock her out cold. With one last small glance back at the vampiress Illyria calmly strolled out of the room, leaving a wet and naked Mercedes to who knew what fate.

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The Car

"Get your asses in here it's almost light," Gwen snarled loudly, even though she had gotten what they had come for, as she flung open the door to her limo and tried to bore a hole straight through Angel with her gaze.

"No shit," Spike cursed out loudly as he dove into the car, not heeding the bullets that struck him in the side, until he unceremoniously crashed into one side of the back seats.

"I'm not leaving without…Wesley, Faith, what took you so long," Angel started to shout back in reply before he turned back towards the house, a fierce look of determination on his face as Wesley and Faith materialized out of the darkness. Almost immediately Angel could tell that something was very wrong. Faith looked to have suffered more that her usual fair share of injuries, enough of them so that she was struggling mightily to support Wesley. That feat should have been easy for her but Wesley looked equally the worse for wear.

"Hey…any room left at the inn," Faith asked huskily though it was more from her breathing heavy than trying to flirt or anything even close to it.

"What happened," Angel demanded angrily as he hurried over and used his body to shield the two from any of the bullets.

"What…heh, do you think, I get into a little bit of trouble and Wes here thinks he's Hercules or something," Faith snapped angrily as she looked away from Angel and glared at Wesley.

"Well excuse me for trying to help the woman that I love," Wesley very nearly gasped back with an extremely pained expression on his face before he seemed to pass out momentarily.

"Wesley," Faith cried out in sheer panic, as Angel thought that he saw a tear slide down her cheek before she regained her composure, propping Wesley up far enough that Angel could see that he looked paler than he had ever seen him.

"Get in the car Faith," Angel yelled out over the sound of the gunfire as he pointed furiously at the open car door.

"But," Faith started to strongly object, looking like she could care less that bullets were flying everywhere around her at that very moment.

"Get in the damn…nnh…car," Angel growled again, definitely not in the mood to argue, before a few bullets to the chest silenced him.

"Angel," Wesley tried to explain before his injuries caught up with him and he winced badly in pain and went silent.

"Just do it," Angel added back, this time taking no chances and grabbed both Wesley and Faith by their arms and rather rudely flung them both into the car.

"Angel…I just had these seats washed ya know," Gwen shot back through the open car window, her voice full of disdain, before she almost tried to lean her head out and glare at him.

"To bad…drive," Angel sarcastically spat back, though Faith thought that she could see the slightest trace of a smile on the edges of his lips, as he dove back into the car, not caring to even shut the door before the car's engine roared to life and took off.

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Headquarters

"Anybody find him," Giles asked with a weary edge to his words as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his beaded brow.

"No, you know for an immature geek he really knows how to hide," Xander breathed out with a worn out shrug of his shoulders as he sunk down into the closest chair that he could find, ignoring the glare of one of the new slayers that had just cleaned the room.

"This can't be good, there's something that he knew that he didn't want us to know," Buffy added, quickly turning away in a desperate attempt to try and hide how tired she was quickly becoming.

"I believe that it would be in our best interest to find out what that is to," Giles stated sharply with a less than thrilled look in his eyes as he pulled out a chair and sat down, his legs quite tired.

"Maybe it's something really weird like Spike's back," Vi offered up out of the blue as she shuffled her way into the kitchen, squinting against the early morning sun.

"Spike…heh, yeah right Vi, that'd be just…crazy," Xander laughed out loud back, clearly finding the idea of the soul having vampire being back ludicrous.

"Great," Buffy honestly answered to herself in a very low mumble, making very sure that no one else in the room heard her, as she turned her face towards the window and soaked up some of the warmth.

"Did you say something Buffy," Giles asked softly as he turned his head towards her and scrunched up his face a bit in concern.

"Huh…oh uh no," Buffy lied with a slightly to confidant of a smile creasing her lips, hoping that Giles wouldn't push the envelope any further before she excused herself and hurried up the stairs to take a shower and get some sleep.

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"I couldn't believe that anything could be this boring…but now," Connor observed loudly, as he angrily threw a magazine down and began to pace back and forth in front of the large window.

"I'm worried about Angel," Nina mumbled out softly through a tissue as she was having a devil of a time trying to keep herself from tearing up at how close it was to dawn and nobody had heard from Angel or any of the others in several hours.

"Big surprise there," Kennedy scoffed with a rolling of her eyes as she angrily shook her head and then started to join Connor at the window.

"You can leave you know, I doubt that anyone will care," Audrey snapped back sharply as she stepped out from behind the table and forcefully crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"What are you doing here again," Kennedy quickly exclaimed loudly with an angry sneer in her gaze, looking away from the window before being silenced by Connor's hand on her shoulder.

"Easy people, this is getting us nowhere, Angel and the others will be back before dawn just like they planned, we just have to have faith," Willow interrupted with a very authoritative tone to her words, though being very careful to not even look in Kennedy's general direction, something that didn't escape the young slayer.

"Spike won't let anything keep him from seeing Buffy, not when he's this close," Dawn added with a very certain and determined look of ferocity in her gaze as she stomped into the room, almost daring anyone to contradict her.

"Exactly, now what we should do is," Kate began to order with an uncomfortable edge in her words before the sounds of the elevator rising up to the top floor made everyone go instantly silent.

"Stay off the living room carpets, I just had them," Gwen's angry voice shouted out as it came over the backs of Faith helping a visibly worsening Wesley in through the doorway, Spike and Angel staggering in slowly, leaving painfully clear trails of dark blood behind them, both using the walls to keep from falling to their knees.

"Angel," Nina screamed in sheer terror as she shot up out of her seat and sprinted towards the door.

"Oh my god…Spike," Dawn exclaimed, very nearly echoing Nina's initial scream, as she raced over and did her best to support him, not caring that she was now completely drenched in blood from the waist up.

"It's okay Niblet, it's not as bad as it looks," Spike tried to reply with a confidant shrug of his shoulders, though he only got about halfway through the shrug before he was forced to stop, hissing loudly in pain.

"Call for a doctor," Faith demanded with a very serious if not furious fire in her eyes as she gently leaned Wesley up against the wall just long enough to glare at everyone in the room, making it clear that Wesley seriously needed help.

"What happened, I thought that you had everything covered," Willow asked very pointedly as she did the best that she could to help Nina support Angel, before wondering where Groo had run off to.

"We ran into a few unforeseen…snags, couldn't be helped," Gwen declared passively as she seemed far to absorbed in the stone that she kept concealed under her coat on her way to her office.

"Couldn't be…why you, you should've known that Angel and Spike hadn't been invited," Faith growled out loudly, as she was very nearly literally spitting venom with every word, before Wesley woke up and lifted his head up, showing off the trickle of blood running down the side of his face.

"Nnh…Faith, where," Wesley blubbered out through quivering lips as he got a good look at Faith's face and saw that she had a fair amount of blood on her face as well.

"Wesley…oh thank God, don't worry Wes everything will be fine, I'll take good care of you," Faith forced herself to say calmly with a determined look in her eyes even though her stomach was knotted up something fierce.

"That's nice, but then who's going to take care of you huh," Wesley softly joked with as good of a sarcastic grin as he could muster before the two completely ignored everyone else in the room and headed for their room.

"What do we do…Willow, what do we do," Dawn asked with a voice full of concern and panic as she gritted her teeth and helped Spike over to the nearest chair.

"We shut up and get these bullets out of me, they won't kill me but it doesn't mean that they don't still hurt like a bitch," Spike pointed out in his usual less than diplomatic tone as he painfully slid his duster off and made quick work of his shirt.

"We're going to need blood…lots of it," Willow announced, seemingly taking full charge of the situation, as she set her laptop down on a nearby table and then hurried to Angel's side.

"Don't look at me," Kennedy scoffed loudly, looking back and forth between Angel and Spike with a look on her face that seemed to suggest that she wasn't going to lift a finger to help either one of them.

"Wouldn't think of it, Audrey…do you think that you can pick some up for me," Willow coldly started to answer as she helped Nina remove Angel's coat and tried to keep her stomach from gurgling unhappily at the sight of so many bullet wounds.

"Huh…me," Audrey fumbled back softly as she was completely shocked that Willow even knew her name, let along enough to count on her in such an important situation.

"Yes you, you know these streets better than I do, I figure that you'd know where to get some fresh blood at five in the morning," Willow shrugged back with a slightly odd expression on her face as she fumbled in a nearby drawer for a pair of scissors to use to cut the remains of Angel's shirt away.

"What happened," Dawn demanded quickly, more out of wanting something to do to keep herself from crying in front of Spike.

"Thought you already asked that pet," Spike commented softly with a curious edge to his words as he stared at Dawn oddly for a few seconds.

"Yeah…probably, but I have a better chance of getting the truth out of you than anybody else," Dawn replied with an almost carefree shrug before she fell back into a relaxed smile and slowly nodded her head.

"And why is…that," Spike said through a rather painful wince as he slowly raised his arms while Dawn started to pull his shirt up.

"Because Buffy's not the only Summers that you can't lie to," Dawn pointed out with a proud and unnaturally confidant light in her eyes as she leaned in a little bit closer to Spike and smiled before pulling back and shaking her head.

"Bloody birds, always…ow," Spike started to angrily mutter under his breath before he jumped in pain and scowled back over his shoulder.

"Sorry, I thought I saw one of the bullets about to fall out," Kate apologized quickly, even though the look in her eyes seemed to suggest otherwise, as she backed her hands off and frowned at Spike.

"Pliers usually work better than fingers luv," Spike pointed out with a slightly odd look in his eyes, one that was halfway between wanting to snap Kate's neck in two with his bare hands and one that was glad that she was at least trying to help.

"You've had experience with this kind of thing," Kate said looking a little surprised as she did her best to stand fully back up without leaning on anyone or anything for support.

"Far to much for my liking," Angel grumbled out strongly through tightly gritted teeth as he brushed one of Willow's hands away and pulled one of the bullets out himself, letting it clink to the floor without watching it.

"But who did this to you," Nina quickly asked, more than a little afraid that whoever had shot Angel would probably try to do it again.

"Who do you think, the guards…it's always the ruddy guards," Spike spat out sharply with a very bitter glare before he bit his bottom lip to keep himself from crying out in pain.

"We had to make a few last minute changes and got sloppy," Angel added in his own two cents worth somberly before he again hissed in pain as someone touched one of his wounds.

"Here…try these, I think that they'll work better," Gwen interjected with an almost annoyed expression as she handed first Willow and then Dawn a pair of pliers.

"What am I supposed to do with this," Dawn asked softly as she held up the pliers and looked to Gwen in confusion.

"Use them to get the bullets out, just make sure that you don't go in any further than you need to, these will take long enough to heal as is," Angel explained strongly as he sat up very straight and braced himself for what was to come.

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No one outside of those standing hooded in a circle knew exactly what this room was really meant for. Many had just believed the lie that the intricate design on the floor was the product of a mad monk's fevered dreams from centuries past. Even some of the world's top scholars in the field had viewed and studied the insignia, all agreeing that it was a work of art, nothing more. Of course that decision suited the room's current occupants just fine.

"I can't believe that none of those fools even had a clue about what this was really all about," One of the hooded men chuckled with a thoroughly arrogant grin breaking the monotony of the other men's expressions.

"That's the point you idiot, only those in the order like us have even the slightest clue as to the symbols true origins," Another of the hooded men snapped angrily as he lightly shook his head, his tone of voice full of spite.

"Enough…both of you, it is time to begin…the end of the world," A taller man ordered with a very fierce sneer as he cuffed both across the backs of their heads.

"Yes sir," The two other hooded men replied in total unison before the third stepped into the center of the room.

"Yes indeed, and to think…this is all possible thanks to that airhead of a slayer…my lovely girlfriend…Buffy," The Immortal slowly nodded his head in agreement as he spoke the words, before finally letting the hood slide off of his head, revealing a now heavily tattooed face.

END OF CHAPTER 36

Author's Notes: There's only one chapter left…it'll be a big one, in more ways than one. Okay maybe two more chapters, just because I let my imagination run away with me a little.


	37. Not How I Pictured It

DOMINO 1-2-3 DOMINO 1-2-3

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.**

**CHAPTER 37-NOT HOW I PICTURED IT**

Buffy's Headquarters

"Uh Buffy…I think you should come and look at this," Vi called out, her voice trembling mightily in fear, as she had to dig her fingernails into the railing to keep herself standing.

"Nnh…this had better be good Vi, I was right in the middle of a great dream and now here I am…wait, did someone just turn out all of the lights," Buffy sleepily groaned as she groggily stepped out of her room, using the wall for support, as she made her way towards where Vi was. When she got to the young slayers side she realized why she had been called.

"Yeah…in a big way, the whole town's dark," Xander sadly replied as he hoped to hide the fear creeping into his voice as he stared up at the very dark sky.

"You mean it's not just night…I didn't sleep all day," Buffy offered up back with a slightly feeble smile and pout as she briefly leaned up against him before standing back upright again.

"Unfortunately no Buffy, because it's high noon to be precise…it should not be pitch black out," Giles declared with a very grim frown as he nervously slid his hands into his pockets and silently stared up at the sky.

"I'm scared Buffy…really scared," Vi mumbled softly with a scared silly look in her wide eyes as she turned to Buffy, looking fully ready to pass out at a moments notice.

"You aren't the only one," Buffy mumbled out softly under her breath with a slow and deliberate nodding of her head.

"Buffy," Xander cautioned with an uneasy frown as he looked worried at the fact of what she had just said.

"Only a fool wouldn't be afraid right now Xander, Giles…what do we do now," Buffy snapped back at him quickly, clearly in no mood to argue with anyone at this point, as she started to turn back into the room and away from the window.

"We find the epicenter of this disturbance and put a stop to it, before anyone gets hurt to badly," Giles explained with an eerily calm tone to his words, as he looked like none of this was bothering him in the least.

"My thoughts exactly, Vi…assemble the slayers, have them fan out across the city and find out where all of this is coming from," Buffy agreed heartily as she headed back towards her room, loudly calling out her orders over her shoulder as she went.

"Yes ma'am," Vi stuttered and sputtered as she shook visibly in her attempts to nod her head and not run for cover out of sheer terror.

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Gwen's Loft

"Red…you've got some explaining to do," Spike growled loudly with a none to pleased scowl as he stared somberly up at the sky and standing out on the balcony even though it was the middle of the day.

"What…huh, oh no Spike, I didn't do this," Willow stuttered and stammered back as her reply as she fumbled her way out onto the balcony beside Spike, staring fearfully up at the sky.

"You sure, because the last time that you went a little crazy this is pretty much," Dawn anxiously interrupted as she edged out behind Spike and used him to keep herself upright.

"I'm not doing this," Willow again argued with a slightly more defiant look in her eyes as she flashed a look of anger towards Spike and then went back to studying the sky.

"She's right, Willow's not doing this…but I want to know who is," Angel stated strongly with a serious and grim scowl, stepping out onto the balcony with his shirt unbuttoned and one arm wrapped around his heavily bandaged midsection.

"Easy Angel, your wounds aren't healed yet," Nina pleaded with a worried and impatient look of panic in her eyes as she hung onto Angel's arm and tried to keep him from pushing himself to far to soon.

"It'll have to do, what do you think Spike," Angel unhappily asked Spike as he turned to fully look at the younger vampire, only briefly glancing back up at the fully darkened sky.

"I think you were right Peaches, he's going for it all now," Spike spat back, more out of anger at the one that he held responsible for all of this than for any real anger directed towards Angel.

"I was afraid of this, I'm not sure that we're ready for this, if he's going for it all right now then more than likely he's going to have everything so heavily guarded that we'll be lucky to get within a hundred miles of the place," Angel commented grimly as he continued to stare at the darkened sky, inwardly finding it very odd to be outside on the balcony in the middle of the day.

"Okay so then what do we do about it, we can't just let him…whoever he is, win…can we," Kate demanded with a clearly irritable scowl and her hands on her hips as she meant to get in Angel's face even though a scared looking Groo was trying his best to stop her.

"Of course not, but running off into the night like a bunch of bloody," Wesley suddenly interrupted from somewhere behind them before being cut off by Faith.

"Easy Wes, I think they get the point, no need to shout," Faith cautioned him as best she could as she propped him up as he staggered into the room, leaning on her heavily.

"I wasn't shouting luv, I was merely trying to point out that it would be wise to not divide our forces, but instead in this case let the others do our work for us," Wesley replied softly as he turned his head to face her, allowing a little bit of a kind smile to grace his lips for a few moment before he turned back towards the window as someone else spoke up.

"You mean," Connor wondered aloud with a slight smirk perking up his lips, as a small light in his eyes went off appearing that he was beginning to get what Wesley was suggesting.

"We let the slayer and her allies find the cause of this malady for us, then we strike at the most opportune moment," Illyria interrupted with her usual tone of indifference as she stood suddenly in the middle of the room and stared straight ahead at Angel.

"Exactly, it's the only thing that we can do," Angel replied impatiently as he finally turned away from the sky and walked back into the main room, with Nina having her arms wrapped around him even though he didn't need her to keep him standing.

"Okay, so then how exactly are we supposed to know when they've found anything," Dawn asked softly with a curious and concerned look in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Spike's waist and laid her head on his back.

"I've already thought of that Dawnie, I still have my backdoor password into the systems back at headquarters, anything that Giles finds out he'll enter into his computer so that he can keep it all straight, when he knows something…we'll know something," Willow explained with a proud and slightly odd smirk as she walked over and picked up her laptop.

"And then we strike," Illyria added calmly as she started off looking straight to Angel before turning her head and looking over at Willow.

"Anybody seen Mercedes, she should be," An unsure looking Kennedy asked as she walked into the room looking around at everyone, scanning the crowd in hopes of spotting the redhead.

"Who cares, we can't waste any time looking for someone that isn't worth the," Willow started to say sharply back, the venom in her words coming shining through, as one side of her lips curled up into a rarely seen sneer.

"Willow," Kennedy exclaimed loudly in more than a fair amount of shock and anger, as she took a stubborn step forward, before Kate held a hand out to stop her.

"Now's not the time for jealousy Willow, you two wanna kill each other be my guest…just wait until after we save the world okay," Angel snapped out harshly with tightly clenched fists before he physically lashed out, smashing his left fist through an expensive looking lamp.

"Angel," Nina screamed as she flattened herself back against the wall in shock at Angel's sudden outburst of violence. From across the room out on the balcony Dawn likewise let out a small shriek of fear and slid around Spike to hide, getting herself further away from Angel.

"Sorry…just call me when we have something," Angel slowly apologized as he hung his head and glanced over at Nina with some sympathy, before he winced in pain and wrapped an arm around his midsection before he paced out of the room.

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The Streets

"I do not like this Buffy," Giles stated unhappily as he finally came to a stop on a corner of the street and leaned back up against the building to keep himself upright.

"Me either, but something is going to happen…something bad, unless we stop it," Buffy gasped out softly as she did the same thing that Giles had just done before sliding down into a squatting position.

"Yeah well…perhaps just this once, we can let it happen, just a little…so that we don't have to continue running around the city with all of the other crazy people," Xander managed with an almost out of breath look to him as he came to a stop from running a few feet away, with an also out of breath small group of slayers behind him.

"Crazy people," Giles wondered aloud with a curious scrunching up of his face as he pushed off of the building and turned to Xander.

"Oh yeah, New Orleans at the height of Mardi Gras doesn't have a thing on this city when the sky all of a sudden goes dark at noon," Rhona grumbled, pouring in her own two cents worth of opinion, as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and angrily glanced up into the sky.

"Be that as it may do we have any ideas about where this disturbance is centralized yet," Giles continued with a less than impressed frown before he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to slowly clean his glasses with it.

"Maybe we won't have to," Vi stuttered out softly with a very fearful look in her eyes as she looked rather confident and relieved at first before she instantly got scared and huddled behind Xander the moment that she realized that everyone was staring at her.

"Meaning," Buffy snapped a little more irritably than she had ever originally intended before she saw the effect that it had on the younger woman.

"M…meaning that for once," Vi started to slowly answer with for once an optimistic half smile beginning to form on her lips before her moment of triumph was usurped.

"The news actually brings some good news for a change," Xander interrupted with a slightly relieved chuckle as his face brightened up as he turned to watch the screen of Vi's laptop.

"Okay…sorry, but I don't know what you mean," Buffy pointed out looking completely lost as she stood back up and frowned.

"The local news media," Vi started to point out again with a somewhat defeated expression, keeping a carefully close eye on Xander, before once again she got interrupted.

"On the spot news here actually got something right for once, they found it," Rhona announced happily with a honestly surprised and relieved tone to her words as she looked back and forth between Buffy and the computer screen.

"Really…where," Giles asked in no small bit of impatience as he jammed his handkerchief back into his pocket and started to head towards them, wanting to see the video feed for himself.

"You're not going to believe it," Vi replied with a nervous smile and little laugh as she glanced up from the screen before blushing furiously and looking back down.

"You're right…I don't," Giles remarked out loud as he let out a garbled sigh and began to walk away, slowly shaking his head.

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Gwen's Penthouse

"Okay people…let's suit up," Angel declared with a very serious look to him as he slid his duster off and began to strap on some body armor, pushing the pain that it caused out of his mind.

"It's about bloody time, been sittin around here for hours like," Spike began to mutter back, forcefully keeping himself from looking anywhere in Angel's general direction even though he knew that his grandsire was glaring heavily at him.

"Don't finish that sentence, please don't finish that sentence, it's to sick to even comprehend," Kennedy grumbled with a slightly sick to her stomach and grossed out expression as she glared a bit at Spike before resuming her picking through the assembled weapons and pieces of armor on the table.

"Well nobody asked you…now did they," Faith snapped sharply as she looked up from tying a rather large knife and sheath to her upper leg, already annoyed by the sound of the young slayer's voice.

"Faith," Wesley snapped out harshly, very nearly spitting, as he looked up from the weapons sitting on the table.

"Wes…you're…defending her," Faith angrily started to yell back at him, the venom clearly in her voice as she glared at him, before she went a step further and grabbed his shoulder tightly.

"Easy…I am not defending her, I'm simply thinking that it'd be best for you not to over exert yourself here before the real battle has even begun," Wesley cautioned with a slightly uneasy expression as he looked more than a little shaky at how angry she had gotten along with the pain that her grip was clearly causing him.

"I don't need defending," Kennedy declared loudly over the glares that she was getting from almost every other person in the room.

"You will if you keep flapping your gums," Faith added intensely as she focused her anger into a strong glare as unintentionally she began to increase the pressure on Wesley's shoulder until he could stand it no longer and hissed in pain. The look on her face at that moment was one that Angel had only seen once, the night in which she had begged him to kill her.

"Are you okay," Willow questioned, with great concern in her words, as she went to Wesley's aid while Faith could only look down at her claw-like hand in horror.

"Yeah I…I think so, thank you Willow," Wesley softly answered with a nervous smile as he tried to keep from doubling over and showing too much pain.

"Wes…Wes I, I'm sorry I," Faith forced herself to say with a scared stutter to her words as she look eerily at him, almost as if she were scared that she was going to hurt him again.

"I know Faith, you get worked up and lose yourself sometimes, I'm okay…really," Wesley replied back with as honest of a look in his eyes as he could as he in turn laid a hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her down as much as possible.

"Really…well you'd better be, because otherwise I don't want to have to," Faith began to answer with an almost lost look on her face and edge to her words before she was interrupted by Angel.

"Where's it centered Willow," Angel demanded with a highly impatient glower in his gaze as he only gave Faith a sidelong glance.

"The last place that…we should have known…I can't believe I didn't, that it took me this long to," Willow groaned out softly in response to Angel's question as she looked almost embarrassed and furious with herself, all at the same time.

"Care to share with the rest of the class there Red," Spike continued, looking as if he was simply ignoring what had just happened as he set about strapping on a stake wrist launcher, one that would easily fit in under the sleeve of his duster.

"The room, the ballroom, where we held the party that night you guys crashed the party," Willow forced herself to say slowly and clearly, even though her mind was racing a mile a minute at the ramifications of what it all now meant.

"You're joking right…why didn't we notice something, Buffy dragged us there like three times a week…I never liked that place," Dawn observed with an annoyed scowl as she slipped her coat off and flung it into a nearby chair before she looked over the weapons remaining on the table.

"Well like it or not it's where we're going," Kennedy threw out with plenty of scorn in her voice as she glared across the table at Dawn.

"Then what are we waiting for, evil is afoot," Groo proudly declared as he thrust a fist into the air, then grabbed a broadsword and before anyone could stop him ran out of the room towards the elevator.

"Uh…shouldn't somebody go after him and like…make sure he doesn't skewer a trashcan or something," Dawn wondered aloud with an oddly curious expression before she had to bite her bottom lip to keep herself from cracking up laughing.

"If I wasn't pregnant," Kate grouched out loud with a bit of a sarcastic look on her face, making it very clear to everyone that she wished that she could be out with them.

"I have a feeling that when this is all over you'll be damned glad that you weren't with us," Wesley remarked with an eerily cold edge to his words before he left the table without another word.

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One Hour Later

"Okay Buffy, the other slayers are in position…man I wish Willow and Faith were here," Xander glumly stated with more than a fair amount of fear in his words as he shuddered visibly at the sight in front of them.

"Xander," Buffy snapped irritably as she whirled around and glared powerfully at him before she tightened her grip on the daggers that she wielded.

"What…I do wish that they were here, Willow with her mad magic skills and Faith's our best…okay second best slayer," Xander managed to stumble through with a very uneasy smile as he tried in vain to keep his breathing under control so as to not hyperventilate.

"Well they're not here okay, they're off running around with Angel," Buffy scoffed with a cross between a worried and annoyed sneer and edge to her words as she stared straight ahead at the pillar of light shooting up into the sky before being interrupted from behind.

"Who's off running around with Angel," Dawn asked with a confused frown as she let the barrel of her shotgun come back to rest on her shoulder.

"Dawn," Buffy exclaimed loudly with a great look of astonishment before almost by instinct she sheathed both daggers in one motion and then threw her arms around Dawn into a strong hug, before jerking back, her eyes wide and focused on the shotgun.

"Dawnie…whoa, since when do you pack heat," Xander started to say to her with a strong sense of relief in his words before his eye focused on the shotgun that she held in her hands.

"Since," Dawn started to proudly answering, looking very much like someone that had been allowed to participate in something for the first time, something that they had longed to take part in for years.

"Since never, Dawn give me that gun right now," Buffy demanded forcefully as she glared at Dawn and then started to reach her hands out to take the gun away from her little sister.

"No," Dawn shot back quickly as she took a sharp step back away from Buffy, tightening her grip on the shotgun as she did so.

"Don't say no to me, I'm your sister…your older sister, now give me the gun and," Buffy angrily stated before she again stated her order for Dawn to turn over the shotgun.

"I started packing heat ever since," Dawn said back as she tried to begin to explain everything to Buffy before Willow stepped in.

"We had our eyes open to the truth about what's really going on," Willow finished for her with a very uneasy shrug of her shoulders before nearly crying as Xander pulled her into a fierce hug.

"And just what is that supposed to mean Willow," Giles demanded with a very short on patience scowl as he repositioned a quiver of arrows at his waist.

"That we're all the biggest fools that have ever lived, we're on the wrong side Giles…just like in L.A., Angel wasn't a bad guy then and he's not now, we're the ones with our heads buried in the sand," Willow snapped back at Giles with enough force and venom in her words to cause him to take a sudden step back with a shocked look on his face, as that was certainly not what he had expected her to say, even though it felt really good rolling off of her lips.

"And you know this how exactly…for all that you know he could have had you under some kind of spell," Xander started to ask, clearly not believing a word that Willow was saying, before Dawn surprised them all and stepped in.

"Xander for once in your life would you please be nice and shut your damn mouth," Dawn angrily snapped with fire in her eyes before she took a step forward, making sure to position the barrel of the shotgun right at his chest.

"Dawn, get that away from him," Buffy nearly shrieked out in alarm as she leapt forward and pushed the barrel away from Xander before they were all interrupted.

"Well now am I to late to join in the fun," Nina asked softly with what she hoped was a tone and body posture that conveyed total confidence as she walked out of a nearby alley and stopped a few feet away, casually allowing the crossbow in her hands to lean casually back against her shoulder.

"Who are," Giles began to ask her with a heart full of dread as somewhere in the back of his mind he felt that he should know the young woman standing in front of him but at that moment he was clueless.

"Nina, what are you doing here, I thought," Willow wondered aloud being very surprised to see the werewolf, at least so soon and ahead of schedule.

"We had to change plans on the fly, things are going from bad to worse out here…in a big hurry," Nina replied with a concerned look as her air of momentary confidence looked to be gone in an instant and she instead looked very worried.

"Great…so what else is new," Dawn groaned out loudly with an annoyed scowl as she shook her head and turned back to look up into the sky at the pillar of light.

"Wait…you know her," Buffy exclaimed with an initial look of disbelief before she remembered enough and calmed down.

"Of course, she's Angel's girlfriend, makes a mean hot fudge sundae to," Dawn replied with an impatient frown, earning a slightly relieved smile from Nina, before she smiled herself.

"That may be however you of all people should know that things are not always as they seem, I think that in this case," Giles cautioned with a less than impressed tone to his words as he regarded Nina with an air of open hostility.

"That you're letting your hatred for Angel cloud your judgment," Willow interrupted him with a very stern glare before she smiled and nodded to Nina.

"I think we're to late here Willow," Nina added with a sly smirk curling up the edges of her lips before a stern look from Buffy changed that immediately.

"You're right Nina, you're absolutely right, I guess this means that we'll just have to do this without their help," Willow continued with some confidence and a slow nod of her head before Buffy broke in.

"Wait, do what without our help…somebody had better start telling me exactly what's going on here or else," Buffy demanded angrily with an impatient clenching of her fists as she started to step forwards towards Nina, almost daring her to explain herself.

"What's going on here Buffy is that unless you and Giles stop thinking only of yourselves we're all going to die for good this time and first this city and then the world is going to be destroyed," Angel stated forcefully as he stepped out of the alley behind Nina, brandishing a rather large broadsword, his gaze never once leaving the shining pillar of light that shot up out of the top of the old building.

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A Little While Later

"Are you sure about this Angel, quite sure," Giles asked again, this time with a fair amount of scorn in his words, as he seemed bound and determined not to believe a word that Angel was saying, even under the most dire of circumstances.

"He just doesn't know when to quit does he," Faith grumbled out impatiently halfway under her breath as she tried not to grin but couldn't help doing it a little when she glanced over and saw Wesley smirk.

"This isn't getting us anywhere Giles, now why don't you just sit down and shut up and let the rest of us talk," Wesley grumbled out loudly with a highly annoyed edge to his words as he clearly looked more than a little weary at having to listen to Giles continue to be hard headed and disagree with everything that Angel was saying, seemingly just out of spite.

"Don't use that tone with me Wesley, don't forget who," Giles angrily snapped back as he nearly jumped up out of his chair and looked ready to fight before being interrupted.

"That's enough…both of you, ya know one of these days we're all going to have to sit down and talk about this…get everything out into the open," Buffy started to shout back at everyone in the room, almost daring any of them to speak out of turn.

"Well that'd be all well and dandy luv, but somehow I don't think that the big bad is going to give us that much bloody time," Spike casually remarked as he calmly strolled out of the alley and into the street, duster silently billowing around his ankles, as if it were all completely normal. The moment that Buffy's eyes landed on him though all that ended.

"S…Spike," Buffy mumbled out in total shock through visibly shaking lips before she started to have a little bit of trouble keeping her gaze in focus.

"It's a trick…he's the first, he has to be," Giles snapped with a very intense look in his eyes and scowl as he tried to glare a hole right through Spike.

"Sorry Rupert no luck this time, you lose…because I'm not the bloody First, I'm just as solid as you are," Spike replied with a slightly cocky grin on his lips as he walked past Buffy and over to Giles before he leaned forward and then before anyone could stop him reached up and rather rudely poked Giles harder than anyone thought possible right between the eyes. Without even being able to get a word in edgewise Giles could only feebly flail his arms as Spike poke sent him sailing back onto a nearby park bench.

"B…But you're here…you can't be here, you died, I saw…I knew you died," Buffy managed to get out nearly in a state of total shock before throwing one single punch at Spike, catching him squarely in the nose. She heard him let out a string of curse's that would make a sailor blush before her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed to the ground.

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The Ground Floor Of A Shattered Building Nearby

"How can this be, you should be dead," Buffy weakly asked as she reached a feeble hand up to lightly caress Spike's cheek as he ever so gently laid her down onto the broken remains of a bed that had fallen down through the floor.

"But I am dead pet, have been for quite awhile to…though you knew," Spike quipped back, trying to keep his composure as stone like as ever, as if her words weren't right now at that very moment tearing his un-beating heart to pieces. It was all that he could do to keep himself from tearing up at the sight of her exquisite beauty.

"Stop playing games with me Spike, what happened, what are you doing here…how are you here," Buffy demanded with a highly impatient look in her eyes, one that told Spike that she was clearly in no mood for any of his games.

"Well luv it all started with that bloody locket that you gave me back in Sunnydale, turns out it did a whole lot more than simply bring the house down," Spike answered with a half smile curling up one corner of his lips as he fought against himself to keep from straying off into one random observation or another.

"Did Angel find you…rescue you, I wanted to look but," Buffy continued with the first idea about what had happened came to mind and she gave it voice.

"Peaches didn't do anything…he probably would have loved to have left me down there to rot…only I wasn't there, I wasn't anywhere near Sunnydale anymore, one minute I'm standing in the cellar burning like overdone crisps and the next minute I'm getting all my parts back in Angel's office," Spike laughed back with a comical chuckle as he began to recount what had happened to him those several months before in the gaping chasm that had once been the city of Sunnydale, as he tried to remain calm.

"So just like that you came back, why didn't," Buffy started to ask back in confusion with a small amount of hurt in her eyes before Spike silenced her by placing a finger on her lips, partially just to keep himself from kissing them.

"Became I came back as a damn ghost, couldn't touch or taste…hated it, but finally got myself together again, had some rather lovely adventures with Angel and his crew, even saw you in London once…stopped by the apartment to, got the dust off though…saw that we weren't welcome," Spike added with a very serious look in his eyes as a quick look of confusion passed over her face before she looked away in shame at the thought of when they must have visited.

"And then," Buffy questioned loudly, clearly egging him on so that she could learn everything that she could before jumping to any outlandish conclusions, even though several were already running through her mind at a feverish pace.

"We lost to much, everybody except for me…Angel, and Fred…who became Illyria, then Wesley came back and he and Faith," Spike admitted with a solemn and grim frown as he found that he had to look away, no longer able to stomach the look of horror in her eyes.

"Yeah…listen about that," Buffy stubbornly started to wonder back with an uneasy and uncertain tone to her words and blush to her cheeks as she asked about something that was puzzling her greatly.

"Can't say as I understand it myself, but that's beside the point, with nothin left after going up against the Senior Partners we got wind of something terrible that we needed to stop, so we came here," Spike shrugged back looking lost for a moment before he hung his head, dropping it down onto her shoulder, before he let out a very deep but completely useless breath.

"But why didn't you tell me that you were alive," Buffy pleaded with him as she pushed him back so that she could look into his eyes and see into his soul.

"I thought about it…really I did, I just thought that after making the big scene back in the basement that just showing up on your doorstep would have been a bit…I don't know, futile," Spike tried to state back in all honesty as he tried his very best to try and explain the jumble of emotions that were swirling within him.

"Futile," Buffy spat back in surprise and confusion, as she couldn't believe the words that were coming out of Spike's mouth, though that wasn't entirely a surprise.

"Yeah futile, kind of make little what I did back in Sunnydale," Spike could only offer up with another nervous shrug of his shoulders as inwardly he knew that he only making things worse by not being able to fully explain himself.

"Oh really…do you know how stupid that sounds," Buffy grumbled out harshly, pushing him away from her enough so that she could sit up and glare at him.

"Well I certainly wasn't going to say that I was scared," Spike shot back in no small amount of anger before he softened his expression and tried to rub some of the tiredness out of his eyes.

"About what…that I wouldn't want to see you again," Buffy answered looking more than a little lost and shocked, before her expression changed to one of some pain.

"No…not that," Spike grouched as he pulled away from her and sat beside her with his legs slung over the side, staring off silently into space.

"Then what," Buffy asked again, this time with a little more force behind her words as she turned and slid across the bed and stopped when she was sitting beside Spike.

"I was scared to believe you, when you said…you know, in the basement, that you loved me," Spike slowly and patiently began to say back, very nearly tripping up on every word, digging his fingernails into the bedspread to keep himself sitting still.

"But…I do…love you," Buffy sputtered back, looking surprised and a bit put off that Spike still didn't believe her when she spoke the words that she felt in her heart.

"Not like I meant luv, that's the love for close friends and such, not monsters like me," Spike forced himself to reply with a rather sullen frown as he turned his head away and tried to keep from getting angry at himself.

"No Spike, you're wrong, I do love you…I am in love with you…as more than a friend, as my champion," Buffy pointed out back with a very forceful and deadly serious look in her eyes as she balled her fists up in the front of Spike's shirt, making absolutely sure that she had his undivided attention.

"Really," Spike nearly had to choke back all of the feelings that were rapidly building up within him before she countered.

"God that was corny, yes Spike I love you," Buffy said softly, repeating herself to make sure that he knew that he hadn't misunderstood her.

"I…love you to," Spike stuttered back with the muscles of his neck clenched so tightly that it looked as if he was literally forcing his body to speak the words. The stayed there, silent statues with gazes boring deep into each other's souls, before moving together almost in complete unison with their lips fusing together.

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The Battle

"I can't believe we're actually following his plan, this is ridiculous Wes," Faith snarled out impatiently as she angrily began to tap her foot on a few crumbs of broken concrete.

"I don't like this any more than you do Faith, but at least until we can figure out what's really going on here we don't really have a choice, we have to play along," Wesley stated back slowly with a deep and ragged breath as he carefully reached out and laid a hand on the middle of Faith's back in between her shoulder blades.

"What was that, why are you guys whispering," Rhona asked them with a very skeptical and unconvinced scowl, making it crystal clear to both that she didn't like being stuck with them in the least.

"It's personal…just between us, look Rhona I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop being such a nosey bitch and leave us alone, we may be forced to work together for right now but once this is over Wes here and I are out of here…for good, who knows maybe we'll find a nice quiet town and settle down," Faith angrily snapped back even though her tone at first was a very diplomatic one, before giving out more of an answer than she had originally intended to.

"Faith," Wesley started to ask in some confusion as he momentarily turned away from watching the pillar of light still shooting up into the sky to look at Faith's profile before he was interrupted.

"Hey…you can't talk to me like that, you ran out on us…off to whore around like," Rhona started to seethe right back to Faith before the older slayers fist connected with her jaw, sending the younger woman awkwardly flopping backwards into the top of a chimney column.

"Faith no," Wesley shouted out loud in shock and alarm as he wrapped his arms tightly around Faith's arms and waist and did his very best to keep her from continuing the fight.

"Come on Wes, let me go, I don't want to hurt you…just her," Faith harshly whispered back to Wesley as she began to lightly struggle against his grip.

"Stupid bitch I'm gonna," Rhona snarled as she took a step back towards them and then pulled her fist back, readying a punch, and then took a swing.

"Take a seat in the corner and shut the hell up until I say otherwise," Spike interrupted with a very clear and commanding edge to his words as he caught Rhona by the wrist and arrested her punch, glaring right back at her until her resolve seemed to soften and she relented, glaring at Wesley and Faith as she went.

"Nice of you to finally show up," Faith forced out through tightly clenched teeth before Wesley released his grip when he felt Faith's muscles slacken.

"Well I do love to keep you all guessing," Spike smirked back as he slowly walked over to the edge of the roof and stared down at the streets below.

"But we're the backup plan Faith…remember, Angel and Buffy are going to take point, we'll only come in if we're needed," Wesley tried to explain again to her as he tried his best to not let the great amount of fear in his heart show forth in his words or the tone of his voice.

"But," Spike started to object in annoyance, a cruel sneer curling up his lips, as he seriously thought about shoving a small statue off of the side of the roof, sincerely hoping that it'd hit someone.

"Knowing our luck Spike we'll be needed, something bad is bound to happen," Wesley pointed out with a deeply sarcastic and grim scowl as he shared a quick look with Faith.

"All the more reason that we should be down there with them," Faith argued back sharply, obviously not over her anger about being part of the backup crew, before being interrupted by Connor.

"But then who'd fight the Scourge," Connor asked with a highly impatient tone to his voice as he pushed open the roof door at the top of the stairs and then kicked it shut behind him.

"The Scourge, but they're not," Wesley countered with a slightly lost look as the full meaning of Connor's answer hit him.

"They're getting off ships down at the port, looks like hundreds of them, they're headed this way," Connor answered with a very serious and almost scared look in his eyes as he nervously flexed his grip on the sword and knife.

"What," Faith blurted out very nearly at a loss for words as her eyes momentarily bulged out of their sockets at the news of a new enemy.

"We have to tell Buffy," Rhona exclaimed loudly in total shock, as the mere mention of the Scourge was enough to get her knees to begin trembling slightly, before she started towards the doorway that Connor had just come through.

"Not right now we won't, don't give me that look either, pretty soon Buffy and the others will be far to busy beating the shit out of the Immortal and his goons, leaving us with a chance for a little spot of violence," Spike stated sharply with a very determined look in his eyes as he held a hand out in front of Rhona, stopping her in her tracks.

"That is the stupidest plan I've ever," Rhona started to shoot back at him with a serious glare, as in the back of her mind she wondered if she could surprise him with a stake to the heart.

"I like the plan, let's do it," Wesley exclaimed loudly with a tight clenching of his fist as he looked to Faith briefly before turning to Spike and nodding his head a couple of times.

"Wes…you sure," Faith asked strongly, her level of concern clearly evident in her tone, as she stepped in between the two men, so that she was blocking his field of vision thus making him look only at her.

"Well we certainly don't have all day to sit here and wait for them to show up now do we, if Buffy and Angel succeed in their plan there's a very good chance that they'll need a quick escape," Wesley tried to explain with an exasperated look of desperation as he pulled Faith into his arms with one arm and the whispered something softly to her so that only she could hear it.

"And running headlong into a horde of the Scourge afterwards won't help either," Spike added with a deeply divided frown as he tried to see Buffy through the darkened windows below.

"Exactly, so the best way for us to help them is to at the very least slow the Scourge's advance," Wesley further explained strongly as he let go of Faith and took her hand in his, something that surprised Spike a little and Rhona a lot, as she hadn't expected it in the least.

"Great idea, only one problem there, how exactly do we do that, even if we get all of the slayers we'd still be outnumbered," Connor countered, still clearly unconvinced by the plan, as he pointed out the first flaw in it that his mind came to.

"Exactly…so we get the local authorities to help us," Wesley chuckled back as he got to the doorway and glanced back at Spike and Rhona over his shoulder.

"What…the bloody cops, why would they help us," Spike spat back, very nearly sticking his fingers in his ears to check to see if something could have crawled in there and messed up his hearing.

"Follow me and I'll show you," Wesley replied with a dangerous smile before he laughed a little bit and pulled Faith out of sight.

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The Ballroom-Thirty Minutes Later

"Just a few more minutes and this world will be ours," The Immortal proudly announced with a triumphant and zealous grin on his face as he thrust his arms up into the air like a prizefighter after a big win.

"Over my dead body," Angel declared loudly, sounding extremely happy to be interrupting the Immortal's big part, as he stepped out of the shadows, twirling his sword in his hands as a final act.

"Ooh…good one there Angel, think of that one all by yourself," Buffy chided back with an immature and slightly dopey smirk playing across her lips as she stepped out into the light, brandishing a short sword.

"What are you doing here," The Immortal nearly screamed out in anger with an intense sneer as both hand immediately dropped down to his sides and were clenched tightly into fists.

"I'd think that it would be pretty obvious…even to you, but then again you never were the brightest bulb in the," Angel started to say back, mocking him as best he could while at the same time quickly glancing around the room to check to see if any of the other hooded men in the room were reaching for a weapon.

"Buffy…what are you doing here…with him," The Immortal snapped angrily as he glared from Angel to Buffy, looking highly offended.

"I could ask you the same thing, I thought that you loved me," Buffy shot back quickly at first before allowing the hurt in her heart to come out in her tone of voice as she tried to cover up just how much she was hurting.

"I did, as much as I could love any bleached blonde little whore," The Immortal admitted with a half shrug of his shoulders before cracking an eerily cocky grin.

"Hey pal, the curtains match the drapes here, which was something that you should have already known from the number of times that we," Buffy angrily snapped with fire in her eyes as she stabbed the point of her sword into the ground hard enough for it to stay there before she pointed a blaming finger at The Immortal.

"I so did not need to hear that," Angel groaned with a slightly sickened rolling of his eyes before he held his sword up in front of him, ready for anything.

"What's the problem Angelus, it's not like you've never," The Immortal quipped with a daring laugh as he looked over at Buffy like a piece of meat.

"Okay already, can the two of you please stop talking about my hair," Buffy snapped as she angrily stomped her foot and then turned back around and pulled her sword up and out of the floor.

"You started it," The Immortal snickered with disdain as he was clearly trying to use this opportunity to mock Buffy.

"Did not you….killing defenseless women wasn't enough for you huh, you need to take over the world to," Buffy demanded with a furious look on her face as she got a good grip on her sword and looked around, almost daring any of them to attack.

"Not exactly, this pitiful world isn't worth much, it'll barely be enough to open the gateway," The Immortal laughed back as he shot a glare back at both Angel and Buffy

"The gateway to what," Angel asked with a none to happy expression as in the back of his mind told him that he wasn't going to like the answer that he'd get.

"That's something that you don't need to know, not that you could stop us…stop me anyway," The Immortal replied, looking eerily calm and confidant, as he then casually crossed his arms in front of his chest and dared Angel to make the first move.

"Let's find out then, shall we," Angel shrugged with a finally released half smile before he spun around on his heels and drove the point of his sword straight through the chest of the nearest hooded figure before the man could even utter a word.

Taking that as her cue Buffy copied suit and leapt at a nearby large group of hooded men and sliced off one of their hands. Smirking at the jokes that she could tell because of that Buffy was almost caught by surprise when the other men surrounding her tried to take matters into their own hands and converged on her. Before she could even let out a typically sarcastic retort Groo charged in, though then unintentionally tripping over his own two feet in his hurry to help and instead of using his sword to attack the hooded men he ended up knocking a number of them over.

"I thought you said that this was going to be hard," Buffy called out over her shoulder as she leapt up into the air, first to avoid a low sweeping roundhouse kick intended to knock her off her feet, before she landed a roundhouse kick of her own to the jaw of the first hooded man to get to her.

"You haven't even begun to reach the fun part yet Buffy, but I assure you it won't be long now," The Immortal declared slowly, making sure that she was hanging on every single word, as he started to take a couple of steps towards her with his hands outstretched.

"Well please tell us when you do because otherwise I might just die of old age," Angel added with a sly and sarcastic grin before he stabbed one hooded man through the chest with his sword, left if there while he smashed two other men's heads together, and then pulled it back out before that man could even hit the ground.

"We could only be so lucky," One of the other hooded men cackled before getting a fist in the stomach from Groo, causing him to double over in pain.

The Immortal looked fully ready to say something back but he stopped short and backed away into a sea of hooded figures. Unable to immediately follow him Buffy was forced to content herself with taking out as many of the hooded men as she could. The fact that all of them seemed all to eager to sacrifice themselves didn't immediately give her any pause. Angel meanwhile continued his orgy of destruction, hacking and slashing away at anything and anyone that even dared to think about getting in his way. He seemed to not have noticed the Immortal's withdrawal from the proceedings. Finally freed from having to worry about actually hurting someone Groo had become a one man wrecking crew, gleefully charging through one crowd of hooded men after another, proclaiming several of his past deeds.

"I don't want to brag but is this how things are supposed to be going…this easy," Angel asked loudly over his shoulder a few minutes later before he and Buffy backed into each other.

"This wasn't part of the plan no…maybe I should call Giles and," Buffy started to answer with a concerned look before the doors to the room were blasted off of their hinges and all of the lights went out.

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Elsewhere In The Building

"What the hell was that," Xander exclaimed loudly as he flung himself against the wall and tried to solidify his position in a doorway to keep himself from falling over.

"I don't know, but whatever it was I doubt that it's beneficial to our cause," Giles answered with a very concerned look as he stopped moving forward and motioned behind him for Vi and the other newby slayers to stop and be ready for anything.

"You worry to much, come on we have to go and help them," Audrey grumbled impatiently with a highly annoyed groan as at that moment she wanted nothing more than to stab one of those around her with her sword for having been assigned to protect them.

"We are helping them," Xander argued meekly with little to back it up as he stepped out of the doorway.

"Really…how," Audrey snapped back in a threatening way as she turned around and took a step towards Xander, the point of her sword aimed directly at his chest.

"We are a strike team, we are the second wave, those that will keep the enemy from making a strategic withdrawal," Giles stated as if he were talking to a bunch of schoolchildren rather than newby slayers.

"You mean run for it like a bunch of sissies," Audrey cracked quickly as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, choosing to not wait for Giles' reply before she struck out on her own towards the ballroom.

"I think we made her mad," Vi interjected softly with a thoroughly scared look in her eyes as the mace in her hands was visibly shaking.

"Nice one Mr. G," Another of the newby slayers grouched with an angry glint in her gaze as she grumbled under her breath as she walked away, leaving Giles to call after her to come back and not separate.

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The Backup Plan

"Told you they wouldn't believe you," Faith pointed out strongly as she lightly poked Wesley in the shoulder as they walked out of the police station and across the street where Spike and the others were waiting in the alley.

"It really doesn't matter Faith, because whether they like it or not soon they won't have a choice in the matter," Wesley commented back with a heavy sigh as he closed his eyes tightly because of the sudden pain in his chest and leaned back up against the wall, his breaths suddenly becoming ragged.

"Well that's all nice with roses and…Wes," Faith started to sarcastically reply with a groan before she noticed that Wesley wasn't next to her. Immediately upon seeing him in pain she lunged forward, pressing herself up against him, pinning him to the wall.

"Oh come on…we don't have time for this," Rhona snapped angrily as he rolled her eyes and turned away from Wesley and Faith still closely pressed together against the wall, her arms slowly and fearfully wrapping around him.

"I'm all for getting a little bit of action when the chance comes up but," Spike started to add with a smug but concerned look before Faith sharply turned her head towards him.

"He's pushing himself to hard Spike, he nearly passed out," Faith exclaimed in an oddly scared tone of voice as rather than looking angrily at Spike there was panic and even a bit of desperation in her gaze.

"No…really, I'll be fine, I just need a minute," Wesley weakly interjected with a half worn out look as he managed to stand back up fully and lean away from the wall a little bit, though Faith refused to give an inch.

"You need an awful lot more than that," Faith declared with a very commanding and determined tone to her words and look in her eyes as she pulled back far enough from Wesley so that she could look him in the eyes.

"Now who's the worrywart luv," Wesley cracked out amusingly with a crooked grin before with Faith's support he managed to stand fully back up, and on his own.

"Nice try Wes, you gave it your best shot but now you don't have a choice, you're going back to Gwen's penthouse," Faith replied with an unconvinced expression as she pulled one hand back and set it on her hip as she gave him a rather stern look.

"We don't have time for this, the Scourge will be here soon, and if we don't do something then people are going to die," Connor grumbled sharply in annoyance as he slowly shook his head and scowled.

"A lot of people," Rhona added with what she hoped was a look of angry determination as she took a step out of the alley and checked to see if she could see anything.

"Please Rhona I'm well aware of that, listen everyone I'll be more than happy to return to Gwen's apartment and rest after we've saved the bloody world…for the fifteenth time…or is it the sixteenth, so many times I can't even keep them straight anymore," Wesley commented, his voice noticeably stronger, as Faith loosened her grip on him enough so that he could take a step on his own.

"You can get out your abacus later, right now we need to do something about the Scourge," Spike stated sharply with a very grim and serious expression, as he looked first to Wesley and then to Faith, completely ignoring Rhona and Conner.

"Why now," Rhona asked slightly unsurely as she looked more scared than angry, nervously tightening and loosening her grip on her stake.

"Because I can smell them, they're close," Spike calmly replied, making his words all that much more chilling, before screams filled the air.

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Just Off The Ballroom

"Are you sure," Buffy asked with a nervous stuttered to her words as she braced herself as best that she could and held the door shut.

"Yes, he's definitely been through here recently…and through that door," Angel answered hurriedly as he stood beside Buffy and pushed on the door as hard as he could, with both barely being able to keep the door closed.

"That's all well and good…really it is, but how does that help us," Buffy shot back with a small amount of venom in her words before her feet almost slipped out from under her but she recovered.

"Because now we know where he is," Angel offered with a nervous and optimistic expression as he kept his gaze averted from Buffy's face.

"I still can't believe that he was behind it all, I should have…I was so stupid," Buffy mumbled softly mostly to herself as she inwardly cursed herself for falling for and then believing all of the Immortal's lies.

"We can talk about that later, right now we need to figure out where he's getting all of these guys, they just seem to keep coming and coming," Angel replied after momentarily pushing on the door before he turned away and hurried to the other door in the room and tried to open it.

"But what about Groo, we just left him out there," Buffy interjected with a worried look as there was another loud banging on the door.

"He'll be fine Buffy, we have to get through this door before the Immortal gets away," Angel shot back more out of frustration than actual anger as he tried hard to force the door to open, but it didn't move.

"I don't think he's going anywhere, it looks like he was casting some kind of spell back there in the ballroom, he won't leave before it's finished," Buffy replied with a slightly hurt look to her before she was cut off by a gloved hand smashing through the door and trying to grab her. Before Buffy could even let out a shriek of alarm Angel had turned from the door, and with a loud yell, cleanly sliced the arm off at the elbow. The man howled in pain as he lurched back away from the door, blood gushing from the wound.

"Forget the door, it's a lost cause," Angel cried out over both the howls of the man whose arm he had just cut off and those of his brethren vowing revenge.

"But what about," Buffy started to get back out there was a bright flash of light and she felt something strike her in the neck, something that felt as small as a pinprick. Seconds later everything went dark as she slumped to the ground.

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The Streets

"Now this is fun," Spike declared with a profound grin as he ducked under a punch of a Scourge soldier and sank his knife all the way up to the hilt in its stomach.

"We're barely holding up," Connor cried out from several feet away, as even though he had already killed several of the Scourge it was very clear that he couldn't hold out to terribly much longer.

"Forget him, when he gets like this he loses his wits," Wesley started to command with a very serious look in his eyes as he danced back just far enough away to be out of the range of a nearby Scourge soldier's fist before he raised his shotgun and blew the soldier's brains out the back of its head.

"When did he ever have them," Faith retorted with a snort before a soldier of the Scourge got a lucky shot in that cast stars across her field of vision. But being the fighter that she was she pressed on and used one stroke of her sword to lop off the fist that had struck her before using her second for its head.

"That's it, no more comments from the peanut gallery," Spike growled angrily before he hoisted one of the soldiers up over his head and then slammed it down on top of a snapped off traffic sign, driving the point straight through the middle of its back.

"I'll show you peanut gallery," Faith snapped back at him with a furious fire in her eyes before she bent over and grabbed a broken slab of concrete, finally flinging it right at Spike's head. In the end though she only succeeded in narrowly missing Connor as he was being forced back.

"Hey…watch it," Connor shouted in anger and alarm as he glared back at Faith momentarily before he was shoved back over the seat portion of a broken park bench.

"I thought you had a plan Wes," Faith shot over at Wesley, her voice dripping full of sarcasm, before she beheaded another soldier.

"I do…and it's about to come to fruition," Wesley confidently grinned back over his shoulder as he and Faith suddenly found themselves fighting back to back.

"Well it'd better happen fast because we're," Rhona started to angrily object before she was flung through a window and out of sight.

"Rhona," Connor started to scream as he got up to his hands and knees before the air was filled with hot lead. Wesley and Faith managed to just roll out of the way by hitting the ground and scrambling into the nearest alley. Connor leapt to his feet and dove through the window that Rhona had been sent through, barely avoiding the jagged edges of the window. Spike however wasn't so lucky. He had been hit by at least three bullets before he could even turn around. It wasn't until he had been struck by a few more bullets that he was finally able to stagger into a nearby alley and flop down into the sewers.

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The Ballroom-An Hour Later

"Let her go," Angel demanded with a furious look of intensity as he struggled against his chains.

"Now why would I go and do a stupid thing like that Angelus," The Immortal haughtily replied as he leaned over and spat in Angel's face.

"Because you're a nice guy," Xander offered up with a scared and nervous smile as he heavily leaned forward against his own restraints, but found that they only tightened the further forward he leaned.

"Hmm…nope, that can't be it," Willow grumbled out with an almost seething look of furry in her gaze as she held herself in check, but only because one of the hooded men was holding a knife to a still unconscious Buffy's throat.

"I feel that I must commend you on your attempt to throw a wrench into my plans, however I can assure you that there is absolutely nothing that you can do to thwart me, I will succeed and rule this pathetic world," The Immortal replied to her with a very confidant and proud smile as he turned from Angel and Xander and walked slowly over towards her, casting a relaxed glance back towards Buffy along the way.

"Well ya know we had to try," Audrey declared with an awful lot of anger in her words as she directed a hard kick aimed right at the Immortal, though because of her bindings it was much more of a feeble attempt.

"Very nice…and you are," The Immortal sneered over at Audrey before he reached over, grabbed a good handful of pink hair, and gave it a quick and hard jerk. Tears appeared in the slayers eyes but she bit her bottom lip and remained silent.

"Isn't this the part where you get all cocky with a false sense of security and tell us your evil plan," Dawn pointed out with a very serious frown on her lips as she glared over at the Immortal before he took exception to what she had said and backhanded her hard across the face. Dawn spit up blood and what looked like a tooth before she turned her head away, trying to hide her fear.

"So you get off hitting defenseless women now huh," Angel snarled angrily with a very bitter sneer curling his lips before the Immortal smiled at him and then landed a hard punch right into his stomach.

"Shut up," The Immortal shot back under his breath to Angel as he pulled back and smiled greedily at everyone.

"Sir…it's time," One of the hooded men fearfully stated as he cautiously approached Angel and the Immortal, each step seeming like a chore.

"Ah yes…how could I forget, thank you…I'm sorry Angelus however I think this is where your plan ultimately fails and mine comes to fruition, I love it when a plan comes together…don't you," The Immortal replied with an almost bored shrug of his shoulders before he turned around and walked away from Angel and over to Buffy, taking her from the man who had been holding her.

"Now you will see the glory of," The other hooded man cackled happily with an ecstatic grin as he began to gloat over the current circumstances before he was interrupted from above.

"If I had a bloody nickel for every time I heard that," Spike snapped with a bitter edge to his words as he dropped from a skylight down to the floor beside Angel. Before anyone could make a move to stop him he slid a knife out of his pocket and hurled it straight at the Immortal's heart.

"No," One of the other hooded men screamed in horror before he leapt forward and to the side, right in the direction of the knife, with the blade finally ending up lodged deep in the man's chest. "Please…sir…help me," The man begged and pleaded in earnest as he clutched the knife with one hand and stretched the other out towards the Immortal. The Immortal gazed down at the man for a few moments, a look of total and complete fear on his face, before he spoke.

"Why," The Immortal asked softly with an almost lost look in his eyes before the edges of his lips began to ever so slowly curl up into the beginnings of a smirk. Before long that smirk turned into a full-blown grin.

"You bastard," Willow shouted angrily with a large amount of scorn in her words as she did her best to convey through her glare the full amount of her hate that she felt for the Immortal at that moment.

"Typical," Spike grouched with an unhappy scowl before he reached for another knife before the hooded men mobbed him under.

"Spike," Dawn exclaimed in fear and surprise as the top of his bleached blond head disappeared underneath the sea of robes and angry enemies.

"Don't worry young Dawn, after I sacrifice your beautiful sister here you'll be next, then the witch," The Immortal said soothingly to Dawn with a kind smile on his lips as he walked over to her, after handing Buffy off to a nearby ally, and politely patted her softly on the top of her head, though taking the chance to take a good long look down her shirt. Dawn looked fully ready to verbally fight back with a very scathing comment before Angel interrupted and spoke up.

"Get away from her," Angel demanded angrily as he struggled to free himself for a few moments before a number of hooded men began to strike him anywhere they could with their short clubs.

"Oh I'm sorry, I can't do that…give me the knife," The Immortal cooed down to Angel with a very mocking edge to his words and look in his eyes before he turned away and held out his hand. Moments later one of the other men set a ridiculously expensive and ancient looking knife into his hand before walking away.

"Do it now sir, do it now…please," A rather short and plump hooded man cackled happily as he clapped his hands together before even going so far as to hop up and down slightly.

"Shut up Whedon…or else I'll slit your throat from ear to ear," The Immortal growled sharply in anger as he glared across the room at the fat hooded man before he walked back over to Buffy and took her by the hair, to where it was clear that if she had been awake she would be wincing her eyes tightly shut in pain. "Now the fun part," The Immortal snickered happily as he carefully and slowly drew the edge of the knife across Buffy's throat from ear to ear. The cut probably wasn't deep enough to leave a scar but enough to draw a thin line of blood.

"Buffy," Spike howled in alarm from his spot at the bottom of the pile of hooded men, with it taking every last one of them to hold him down as he began to almost flail around like crazy in an attempt to get free. In his mind he was already dreaming up hundreds of cruel and inhumane things to do to the Immortal when he got free.

"Calm down…that was just for fun, next comes the main course, hmm…so sweet," The Immortal replied with glee as he trailed the index finger of the hand that held the knife along the cut until he brought the digit up to his lips and sucked Buffy's blood off of it. Willow and Dawn tried their best to not throw up at that point before the Immortal continued. "And here we go…goodbye Buffy," The Immortal added with an almost orgasmic grin before he reached back and drove the point of the knife straight through the middle of Buffy's back, pushing it so deeply into her that the point of the blade poked out the front of her just under the bottom of her ribcage.

"No," Everyone cried out at once in complete unison at the top of their lungs as they all struggled mightily against their bindings, aghast at the sight in front of them. For her part Buffy's eyes both suddenly burst open and strained in shock and pain before she coughed up a little bit of blood that ran down her chin.

"Now…with the blood from this knife I will," The Immortal started to say almost in a chant as he pulled the knife out of Buffy's body and held it over his head before a strong wind flew into the room and interrupted everyone.

"Die," Illyria stated sharply with a very matter of fact tone to her voice before just as the Immortal's eyes bulged wide and his mouth fell open she reared back and drove her fist straight through his back and out his chest, clutching his heart in her loosely clenched fist afterwards. Time seemed to completely stand still for several eerily silent moments. No one in the room knew exactly what to do; in fact few even dared to take a breath. Most of those in the room had their gazes fixed on the Immortal's heart in Illyria's hand. Angel and Spike were instead however riveted by the sight of Buffy covered in her own blood. Whereas at one time that sight would have filled both with nearly immeasurable glee, however now if it were possible the sight would have made their hearts stop in an instant.

"Buffy," Angel stammered out softly with tears forming in his eyes as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Ah…uh," Spike could only manage to mutter incoherently, as at that very moment his usual way with words left him high and dry.

"Such weakness…pitiful," Illyria commented with a look of almost impatience as she slowly pulled her hand back through the Immortal's body, allowing it to flop to the ground. The silence was broken next by the gasps of shock and panic from the hooded men who acted like their world had just ended.

"Buffy…pet," Spike exclaimed loudly as he jerked himself free from his captors and scrambled to Buffy's side, finally gently pulling her up into his arms as he was on his knees.

"S…Spike," Buffy weakly choked out as she began to shake ever so slightly while tears poured down her cheeks, soon joined by some of Spike's own.

"Buffy," Angel pleaded as powerfully as he could as he finally managed to break himself free of his chains, allowing him to rush to Buffy's side.

"Please luv…stay with me," Spike stated sharply with an angry gritting of his teeth as he continued to hold her close in the hopes of almost willing her back to health.

"Come on Buffy don't…you're going to be okay, we'll get you to," Angel added in as he moved to her side and cautiously reached his hand out towards her, seemingly afraid of actually touching her.

"Heh…liar, you always," Buffy tried to softly interrupt with a nervous look in her eyes before she was silenced by another fit of coughing that forced more blood out of her body.

"Buffy," Angel shouted very loudly before almost literally all hell broke loose as the beam of light that had been bathing them ever since they first entered the building now went insanely out of control. Instead of simply being a beam of light shooting up through the hole in the skylight the light became like a weapon all by itself. Splitting into several separate beams they each began to flail around like loose strands of spaghetti. Spike and Angel initially made to stay where they were and try to at the very least stem the bleeding but all of that stopped when one of the beams came close enough to just graze the both of them. It felt like a splash of holy water, hot enough to cause their skin to sizzle, before they drug Buffy as fast and carefully as possible into a nearly destroyed alcove.

"Bloody hell," Spike growled angrily as one of the beams flew over his head, coming close enough to singe off the tops of some of the hairs on his head.

"Spike…get ready, I'll go out first and draw their fire…then you sneak out with Buffy and get her to a hospital," Angel cried with a very determined look in his eyes as he got up into a crouched position and waited for just the right moment to move.

"Buffy," Dawn screamed out in sheer terror as she dove down under a barely standing table and began to cower for her life.

"Don't move her…she's to…injured," Giles shouted out through the chaos as he tried to crawl forward a few feet but was stopped when one of the flailing beams of light crashed into the ground in front of him.

"Well we can't bloody well keep her here," Spike argued angrily as she glared over at Giles before the space between them was filled with flailing beams of light and the Immortals' men running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"Spike…I know…I know what," Buffy weakly choked out with a very strained look to her as she tried not to think about how quickly her life was ebbing away, spilling out across the carpet.

"Not now pet, save your strength," Spike started to reply with an irritated edge to his words as he briefly turned and looked down at her before he had to turn away to avoid another flailing beam of light and energy.

"Spike please, I won't last…I won't make it to a hospital," Buffy began to beg and plead with Spike as she tried to reach up and place her hand on his cheek, but halfway up her strength failed her and her hand dropped back down at her side.

"Don't say that," Angel shot back over his shoulder with a scared silly and furious growl as he was in the mood to punch someone if things didn't change for the better in a big hurry.

"Spike…please, I don't want to die…not again," Buffy continued as she was to the point where her eyes were so filled with tears that she was beginning to have trouble seeing Spike clearly, at least she hoped that was the reason.

"You won't, we'll get you out of here and," Spike started to say back with as best of a reassuring tone to his words and look in his eyes as he could work up at that moment even though inwardly he believed the exact opposite of his words.

"No…Spike please, I want you to," Buffy replied with a great amount of hurriedness in her words with a look in her eyes that told Spike all that he needed to know.

"No…Buffy…no, I won't…I couldn't," Spike countered, the tone and tenor of his voice becoming more and more serious and sure with every word before she stopped him in his tracks with another small cough.

"Please Spike, I don't want to be alone again," Buffy shout out as she began to feel as if she were choking on her own blood, feeling it quickly becoming very hard to breathe.

"No Buffy…Spike no," Angel declared with fire in his eyes as he had been listening to their conversation and finally realized where Buffy's train of thought was heading, not liking it one bit.

"I…can't," Spike managed to get out through his horror at what Buffy was asking him to do to, or was it for, her.

"You have to…please," Buffy began to demand again, though this time it appeared as if it was taking what little energy remained her to even get enough of a breath to do so.

"Spike…NO," Angel roared again, this time spinning around to try and forcibly separate the two before out of the corner of his eye the nearly three century old vampire saw something that had he been alive would have stopped his heart from beating in a second. Appearing as if it was just another day like any other and that nothing of any great importance was going on Illyria calmly walked right through the flailing beams of light, not even wincing when her flesh began to sizzle and her clothes melt away. With an almost cocky smirk, that slid into an almost ecstatic grin towards the end, Illyria got to the center of the beam of light and turned to face Angel. He thought that for a second he saw her wink at him before it happened. In an instant she seemed to implode. The force of the detonation spun him in circles away from the center of the beam of light and through the nearest wall. The last thing that he thought that he remembered about that night, which could have just been his overtaxed mind working against him, was the sight of Spike's fangs sinking into Buffy's neck.

END OF CHAPTER 37

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EPILOGUE

San Francisco, California-Ten Months Later

"Whoever designed this city was sick…sick and demented," Dawn grouched unhappily as she slung her book bag off of her shoulder and unceremoniously dropped it onto the table in front of her.

"True…though you know most of it is because of the lay of the land, there were always hills here," Xander commented softly with a forced relaxed tone to his words as he glanced back at her over his shoulder as he was in the middle of trying to boil some water.

"So," Dawn grumped back sharply even though it was clear that she knew that she had already lost the argument, but didn't want to admit it openly.

"Any news about Buffy…or any of the others," Willow asked with a worried but hesitant tone to her words as she tried to hide how lonely she felt. The second that Illyria had imploded they had all been ripped from that spot in the city, no matter where they were standing. When Willow woke up a few moments later she only saw herself, Giles, Xander, and Dawn nearby, with no knowledge where the rest were or even if they were still alive.

"Sorry Willow, I tried to get something out of Giles but…ever since Rome," Dawn started to answer with a somber shrug of her shoulders before she found herself unable to finish the thought, letting her voice trail off at the end.

"Don't worry Dawnie…we'll find them…Buffy to, she's survived worse," Xander tried to say to bolster all of their spirits, wishing that he had something like attending college like Dawn to take his mind off of what had happened to Buffy and whether or not she was still alive.

"Yeah but," Willow began to object with a nervous smile as she brushed some hair back behind her ear, before Xander spoke again.

"No buts…now who wants to come over here and help me make dinner," Xander interjected quickly in an attempt to keep the conversation moving before both women reluctantly agreed to help.

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Iceland

"I look like an idiot," Faith snapped impatiently as she joined him at the table, allowing him to pull out the chair for her.

"Faith," Wesley replied softly with a cautionary tone to his words as he walked back around to the other side of the table and sat down.

"I look like an idiot…and I'm cold," Faith shot back as she gave a quick look around the room and grimaced at the goosebumps appearing on her bare shoulders.

"Faith," Wesley again stated, his voice this time a little louder, as he tried to keep her calm and get her to relax a little.

"My feet hurt, my back hurts, I haven't had a drink in months," Faith continued to grumble unhappily as she glared at the others in the large room, all obviously enjoying themselves.

"Faith," Wesley pouted with an annoyed scowl that he hoped would only last a short time as he also looked around the room, but he was making sure that no one was noticing their conversation.

"What," Faith demanded impatiently before she snatched up a menu and disappeared behind it, intent on not looking at Wesley again for a lengthy amount of time.

"You're a new mother Faith, things like that are meant to happen," Wesley forcefully replied with a calm tone to his words as he too picked up his menu and took a look.

"And this," Faith shot back with a curious and unhappy frown as she lowered her menu enough so that she and Wesley could look at each other, before she raised a hand to her head and brushed a few blonde locks off of her face.

"We have to try and blend in, keep a low profile, at least until we can figure out what happened to the others," Wesley answered softly to her under his breath as he leaned forward over the table and tried to look as if he were simply asking her about what she was going to order.

"I know that Wes I'm not an idiot," Faith replied under her breath, though how she said it made it sound more like an insult than a simple answer.

"I know that Faith, but this is the first time that we've been out together since Hope was born, we were lucky to find a babysitter that we could trust on such short notice," Wesley said with a tired but happy smile as he continued to try to appear as if they were out on a date.

"I know…but it's just creeping me out…waiting here like a…like a…normal couple, while everyone else is out there and," Faith nervously replied as she went back to looking at the menu, even though she only doing it for appearances.

"I'm aware of that Faith, once Hope is old enough to travel safely we'll head out to try and find everyone…now please try and relax and maybe even enjoy yourself a little," Wesley told her with a hopeful look in his eyes before he switched to a look that he knew that Faith couldn't object to. She tried to a couple of times before she calmed down and the two spent the rest of the night trying their best to have fun.

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Southeast Asia

"You all right," Nina wondered aloud with a curious look in her eyes as she propped herself up onto her elbow and stared at Angel.

"If I said yes would that stop you from worrying," Angel replied with a tad harsher tone to his words than he wanted, and when he turned away from the window and back to the bed he could see Nina looking worried.

"Well you didn't have to react like that, it's not my fault that it's just the four of us here and that there's some funky spell keeping us here," Nina shot back with an obviously hurt look to her as she pulled the blanket back up over herself, covering herself back up as she was naked due to the heat.

"Connor and Audrey are okay…not sure I approve of them sharing a room, but…," Angel shrugged back nervously as he shook his head and then looked back out of the window.

"He has to grow up sometime, at least now you can keep an eye on them, now come back to bed," Nina answered him with a sympathetic tone to her words before she pulled the blanket back, just as he slowly climbed back into bed beside her.

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The Heart Of Africa

"Ah…that was…that was," Mercedes moaned out happily with an exhausted tone to her words as she slid off of Spike and collapsed beside him, both lying flat on their backs and staring up at the large tents ceiling.

"Think we ruined anybody's day luv," Spike asked with a playful snicker as he glanced over at the newly dyed redhead, both dripping with sweat.

"Hopefully, but isn't she supposed to come out tonight," Mercedes offered with a suddenly nervous look to her before she sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees after pulling them up to her chest. Having a soul had surely made her see things differently, with in her mind believing that it had brought her closer to Spike than ever before. The idea of sharing him with Buffy at first had been something that she hadn't even wanted to consider. But after only a few nights of the three of them sharing a bed she had changed her mind. Now the new blonde vampiress was undergoing the trials to get her own soul back. They had been waiting for almost a week, waiting with a local tribe that knew what they were and why they were there. The shaman had somehow brought them fresh blood ever day, just enough for them to survive on, though they were sure that none of it was human.

"Yeah…once she does though we'll have to help her get through the shame and everything else before we take her home, Dawn and the others must be worried sick by now," Spike answered softly with an anxious expression before he reached over and grabbed a glass of blood, draining it in one sip.

"Yeah, but are they really going to be okay with her being a vampire now, and Willow's not going to want to see me, she and Kennedy split up because of me," Mercedes pointed out quickly with a depressed frown as it was clear that she still had some feelings for the young slayer.

"Red will get over it, she won't have a choice, now come on…let's go see if it's over," Spike commented with a matter of fact tone to his words before he got up and put on his clothes. He gave her one more short look of support before throwing the door open and striding out into the night.

END OF EPILOGUE


End file.
